Butterfly Throttle
by Awdures
Summary: Robotnik is not easily put off from a plan, but using Chaos Emeralds is never as easy as simply stealing them. Sequel to Ends and Means. SatAM-based.
1. Chapter 1

**I tend to feel Sonic stories ought to have a 'version of reality' explanation attached to them, there's so many variations of canon. This one is a sequel to another fic of mine which started out in the world of SatAM and since I was always disappointed that Knuckles never made it into that series, was my attempt to 'introduce' him. There are references to that story in this but nothing which requires superhuman feats of recall ;-) I don't, as a rule, 'do' sequels so this is something on an experiment. I will not take offence it it doesn't work...  
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Spy-eye bots swarmed from Robotropolis in rank after rank, spreading out across the sky.

Sonic and Sally crouched in the scrubby cover a mile or so from the city and stared.

"So I guess we can take it that Robuttnik is still alive and well then," Sonic muttered.

Sally sighed, not even bothering to answer.

After seeing Robotnik's ship disappear in flames over the edge of Angel Island, they'd all had more cause than usual to hope that _this_ time, it really was the end. As it turned out, they'd barely been back in Knothole long enough to think about mounting an expedition to the city to investigate, before the flocks of bots had started to emerge.

"Why is he turning them out so fast?" Sonic asked. "Where are they going if they're not looking for us?"

"I don't know," Sally said. "But there's too many of them, one of them's bound to look this way sooner or later. We need to go."

"Ready ten minutes ago," Sonic grinned. His optimism was seldom dented for long, and he stood up, grasped Sally's hand and bounded forward into a run.

Back at Knothole the mood was sombre. Even the few days peace had been enough to get people hoping.

Matters were not improved by the fact that the waves of bots continued to emerge for the next week. No one dared venture out of the forest, and most stayed close to Knothole itself, afraid of being cut off.

Sally was the exception, regularly making trips to the edge of the forest. When Sonic challenged her she only looked thoughtful.

"Not one of them has come inside the forest searching," she pointed out, as they paused in the fringes of the forest. The leaves were well into their autumn colours and crunched underfoot as the two paced the perimeter together. "They're making everyone jumpy and they're keeping us holed up here, but they're not searching the forest."

Sonic frowned. "I hadn't noticed."

Sally smiled, slightly tiredly. "You surprise me."

"So what _are_ they looking for?"

"I don't know." Sally continued to look upwards through the half-bare branches. "But I think I can guess, and it's nothing on the ground."

"Angel Island again?" Sonic asked.

Sally nodded slowly. "What else makes sense?" She bit her lip and balled her fists. "And there's nothing we can do. No way we can even get a warning to Knuckles. If Robotnik can't find him with that lot, we've got no chance."

"If Robotnik can't find him with that lot then it's not a problem," Sonic pointed out.

Sally was not reassured, but she was right in saying there was very little they could do. She stationed a watch to look out for any change in the pattern of the bots' activity, and had to be satisfied with that.

* * *

Robotnik stamped into the control room, bots working at the illuminated consoles scattered before him, and Snively jumped so high he nearly missed his seat on the way down.

"Well?" Robotnik asked.

"Nothing yet, sir," Snively quavered.

"No sighting whatsoever?"

"No, sir. Nothing on visual or infrared. We are continuing the search pattern."

Robotnik picked up a handful of recent printouts from where the were balanced on to of a console and flicked through them.

"What are these?" His voice had adopted the dangerously calm tone Snively had come to associate with an imminent explosion. Frantically he searched his memory for anything in the report that might be put down to his fault.

"L-losses, sir..."

"Losses?"

"Yes, sir..." Snively dabbed his brow. "We always lose a certain amount... We... We suspect hedgehog activity, sir."

Robotnik raised his eyebrows. "Do _we_?"

He sat down in his large central chairs surrounded by machiens and monitors. Snively trailed after him.

"Tell me, Snively, have you _read_ these reports?"

"Yes, sir?" Snivelly answered uncertainly.

"Have you?" Robotnik tapped the arms of his chair, his tone chillingly pleasant. "Then explain to me, _dear_ nephew, how it is that the hedgehog suddenly has the capability to attack my machines in the middle of the Western Ocean."

Snively gulped and gaped, suddenly breathless.

Robotnik shoved the papers at him, almost bowling him over. "The coordinates, you imbecile! Where were they 'lost' -- Did you even look?"

"I... I..."

Robotnik moved from the chair deceptively quickly and dragged Snively to his feet and shoved him towards the bank of consoles.

"Plot them, you fool. Do it now. All the losses there have been."

Snively fumbled at the keyboards, made clumsy by confusion and fear. Eventually a map swam into focus, and the positions of the destroyed bots lit up. A clear trail of destruction. A clear path to follow.

"Excellent," Robotnik sat back, placated. "Our ever-so-conscientious Guardian, cannot have it both ways, you see. He cannot allow my observers to return with his location, but he cannot destroy them without leaving evidence of exactly that. Deploy the swatbots."

* * *

A hundred miles away and two miles up, Knuckles twisted in the air and landed a punch on the nearest hoverbot. Chaos energy flowed through him and the blow cracked the machine from end to end. It fell towards the slopes below, and Knuckles dropped with it, kicking out with both feet as he landed on another craft, sending that one dropping as well. Somewhere just above, another bot was breaking from the first wave and flying towards the peaks. Knuckles leapt again and soared after it.

He fell on it, clutching and yanked backwards, flipping the machine and himself through a clear 180 degrees before letting go. He recovered his balance in the air and flew on. The machine did not.

But the sky was thick with the invading craft, and although it was hard to pick out any clear emotion in the whirl of the Emerald's power, a part of Knuckles was apprehensive. Sheer weight of numbers meant that sooner or later one was likely to get past him.

A near miss from an unseen bot set him tumbling. Sky and grass blurred together for long seconds until he managed to pull up. He fought to maintain his concentration as he assessed the situation. The broken shapes littering the ground below outnumbered those still attacking, but there were far too many. They closed, reordering the scattered formations where Knuckles had ripped through them.

Then, rising over the hillside, came a second wave. Knuckles paused only a moment, in shocked despair before launching himself at the bots between him and those heading for the volcano's peaks.

He smashed through them easily, but every blow he landed was a delay as the new bots advanced on the volcano and the cave system of the Hidden Palace. There was no way around, there was no way through. Blocked and stymied by a seeming wall of bots, he could only watch as the second wave opened fire at the hillside and the very ground was split open.

"No!"

The Master Emerald keened and shrieked in his awareness, at this violation, and Knuckles barely thought before reacting instinctively, using the Master's power to cast away the other seven Emeralds, scattering them to the strange dimension they occupied when not contained.

The feat took the last of his control and an explosion of Chaos energy split the ruined peak further. The nearest wave of bots were thrown in pieces against to the ground and Knuckles gasped and shuddered as though he'd been plunged into ice-water. He fell, unable to get his body to obey him, unable to turn the fall into a glide. He collided with one of the bots below, and clung on long enough to dissipate the worst of the force as he and the damaged bot hit the ground together.

Through blurry and grey-tinged vision he watched another wave of bots approach the shattered hillside. Uncertain of what he thought he could now do to prevent it, he clambered to his feet but staggered almost instantly as the ground trembled.

The flock of bots rose from the volcano's blasted caldera. At the centre of the formation, one of them bore the Master Emerald, clutched and held in metal talons, its light looking faded and weak in the bright sunshine. Knuckles fell to his knees again as the Island listed dangerously.

The remaining bots of the closer fleet had turned towards him. It crossed Knuckles' mind to simply hold his place and let them finish what they'd started. He had already failed. But the Master glowed dimly in the sky, and the Island trembled beneath his hands and both needed their Guardian.

He drew a shuddering breath, raised his clawed fists, and burrowed as hard and as fast as he could.

Distantly he heard blasts behind him, felt the vibration though the earth of the attackers and the Island's fall, but he concentrated on moving forward until he broke through into one of the tunnel systems. He recognised the spot as a linking tunnel running from the underground maze of Hidden Palace to the elaborate subterranean tombs of Sandopolis. Built for emergencies really, for times the Guardian needed to travel unseen. Bare cut rock lined it, evidence of long lost technology, no less impressive for the lack of dressed stone and smooth curves of the Hidden Palace chambers.

Thanking the foresight of his predecessors, Knuckles staggered away from the noise of the attackers until he ran out of breath and sank to the rough stone floor. He slowed his breathing and reached out for the Master in his mind. There was resistance. Cold metal yes, but something more. Resistance from the Master itself. It was in danger. The Chaos energy was needed there now to defend itself. The fact the energy was also needed to keep the Island in the air was of secondary, if any, importance.

But if the Island fell and the Guardian died, then the Emeralds would all be lost forever.

Knuckles knew this. His was the consciousness that the Master lacked, and he set his will against it and he drew the power to him.

Control. Control, not Chaos. If the Master was to be recovered then he needed this now. He had never taken the power by force this way and when the energy wave broke over him it was painful in its intensity.

He writhed, fingers scrabbling against the rock, eyes squeezed shut. Fighting for control, however tenuous. The power flowed through him into the trembling ground and the Island's shuddering stopped, although the descent did not. Knuckles realised the best he would be able to do would be to get to the surface without it falling. If he could hold on that long.

The Island descended erratically, listing and weaving in a slow spin. Bots circled it. Some descending to the surface, others orbiting and watching. They all backed off as the Island approached the water. Scattering like wasps.

It struck the shallow water in a tidal wave of spray. The water and debris settled slowly and silence returned. The Island drifted slightly before settling aslant, half in half out of the waves, one half almost submerged, the other protruding high above, lakes suddenly transformed into dripping empty craters. Steam rose where the lava from the central volcano met the sea.

Knuckles shuddered his way back to conciousness, confused for a moment as the roar of the waves and the roar of the bots' engines blurred together. The realisation a moment later that he was lying past his neck in water sent him scrabbling further up the tunnel, heart pounding. The water did not appear to be rising however and he paused for a moment to take stock.

There was no longer any sense of motion. The Island had come to a stop. The water and the sharp slope of the tunnel told him how and why. Then there was the noise of the bots roaming through the tunnel system. Were they looking for a way out? Or looking for him? Surely they had no need for that – they'd taken the Master Emerald. He winced at the thought but it was true, so why were the bots still here?

Here and close, he suddenly realised as the stone of the tunnel wall began to shudder and give under some sort of tool.

He glanced swiftly from one direction to the other. They'd expect him to run uphill of course, where the Island was clear of the water. Maybe even to flee in panicky habit to the stripped and empty Emerald shrine. The other way, the tunnels led towards what had been the wastelands of the Island, the underground tombs of Sandopolis, and the edge of the Island.

Knuckles looked at the crumbling wall, then at the passageway sloping down into the water.

"Why do I think I'm going to regret this..."

He broke into a jog, splashing into the water, which soon became shoulder high. He kicked off from the floor and swam, head almost touching the roof. He didn't stop to listen for sounds of pursuit until he could see the point where the water level met the top of the tunnel.

The sounds were getting no closer, but weren't dying away either. Apparently the swatbots were not designed for venturing into the water. Knuckles trod water where he was for a few moments. The bots could afford to wait him out while they searched the rest of the Island.

He was moderately certain that he knew the way out and could reach it with one breath's worth of swimming, but he was uncertain what damage had been done in the fall. If the way was blocked...

A splash from behind him decided him – apparently the bots had decided to discover how waterproof their construction was after all.

Knuckles dived and kicked hard to propel himself through the tunnels. He smashed through a sealed doorway and was momentarily dragged along by the unexpected strength of the current that flowed through. He resisted the urge to gasp in surprise and concentrated furiously on remembering the way, in the confusingly tilted tunnel network.

He was starting to see spots by the time he found the spot he was seeking and it was almost with the last of his strength that he dug at the sandy earth, made heavy by the weight of water. He forced his way through and struggled through the narrow hole to find himself looking up at the underside of the Island, where it rested on the seafloor. Disoriented, he let out the last of his breath, and only the bubbles, clued him as to which way was up. He floundered to the surface and bobbed there, gasping for air, and merely hoping no bots would look in his direction.

Debris littered the surface of the water where the Island had crashed down and motionless, he must have been hard to spot amongst it, because nothing came after him. After a few moment's rest, he drew another long breath and dived again, swimming towards the far side of the bay.

Each time he surfaced for air it was on tenterhooks, able to do nothing more than hope he wasn't seen and the effort was becoming exhausting. By the time he reached the cliff and started to climb his arms and legs were trembling alarmingly. The cliffs were shadowed and his fur dark with saltwater and he was slightly more confident of not being seen now, but he had no strength left to smash his own holds in the rock and his progress was slow and faltering.

Concious thought contracted to the bare minimum required to think about the next handhold, whether _that _protrusion would support a foot while he jammed a fist in _that_ crevice.

When he finally rolled over the top of the cliff, he wasn't even aware of crawling on hands and knees into a scrubby hollow beneath a low bush and passing out.


	2. Chapter 2

"You think Knuckles is under attack up on that Island of his?" Bunnie asked. They were grouped, as so often, around Sally's dining table. Sally at the head of it, but everyone leaning forward and adding loudly to the discussion.

''We're not certain," Sally said. ''But those bots are going somewhere and we know Robotnik would love to get his hands on that Master Emerald."

This time Bunnie only groaned. Rotor chewed his lip. Antoine frowned.

"And if he does?" he asked. "lt is very dangerous, yes?"

"Sure, _if_ that's what he's up to and if he manages it." Sonic, who had jumped down from the table, paced the room. ''We don't know that. We don't know Knuckles is in trouble at all." He shot a glance at Sally. ''I think we need to run a recce into the city and see if we can tap the computers there and find out for certain."

"Maybe." Sally considered it.

''C'mon," Sonic urged. ''I can scope out Robo-town in no time."

Sally turned the idea over. She stared at Sonic trying to figure out how seriously he was taking this.

Obviously picking up on her expression, Sonic clapped his hand over his heart.

"I solemnly swear l will not hang around for any 'idiot hedgehog heroics'." He grinned, clearly recognising exactly what was on Sally's mind.

Sally sighed. She hated Sonic dashing off on solo missions but it would help a lot to have some definite information.

"Okay," she said finally. ''See what you can find out. But remember- that counts as a promise - no heroics."

"You got it Sal!"

* * *

Alone, Sonic tore straight through the wasteland that bordered the city. Without anyone else to worry about, he had less concern for dodging the bots, secure in the knowledge that he could outrun them. He slowed as he entered the more built up area, but to avoid whisking up the dirt and debris that littered the streets into a distracting cloud.

Activity levels among the bots seemed to be more or less normal again. Perhaps a few less of them out on the streets -- _Guarding something?_ -- but nothing hugely conspicuous.

Sonic ran towards entrance to the tunnels, and the route into Robotnik's fortress but was less than half way there when, without warning there was a blinding flash and a blast threw him to the ground.

He was uncertain when he opened his eyes whether seconds or minutes had passed, but as he blinked in confusion he was surprised to find himself laying on the pavement.

A number of bruises protested sharply as he tried to push himself upright and he fell back before rolling over and sitting up.

The clank of metallic limbs warned that the inexplicably missing swatbots were indeed on their way, and Sonic stood, rather shakily, and scanned for the best route out.

When the bots rounded the corner he was startled into motionlessness and there was a momentary delay from their reaction too. They were damaged, Sonic realised. Loose panels and twisted metal dangled, and when one tried to fire, the weapon fizzed and sparked.

Sonic leapt aside, brain suddenly whirling. Who had fired on him then? Not the bots after all. What had damaged them as well? An experiment gone wrong, a new machine that hadn't quite worked? Robotnik seemed to make depressingly few mistakes with his mechanical creations so...

Even with his thoughts on other things Sonic had dodged the first, abortive attempt of the bots to fire on him and was weaving his way between them towards the city perimeter. Wanting more speed, he reached o his pack for the power Ring nestled there, and suddenly, as he looked at it, glowing fiercely as he'd only seen once before, he knew the power source of that explosion.

The Master Emerald was already in the city.

* * *

Knuckles scraped for a few more minutes at the soggy, muddy hole he'd dug in the wooded bank, then straightened. The rain washed some of the mud away but he was getting wetter by the minute and now that he had stopped exerting himself, he was starting to shiver. He crawled into the damp scrape and curled up.

He hated the rain. On the Island it was easy to avoid, simply by moving away, or above the clouds. The plantlife needed it occasionally of course, but he could always make sure he was nicely tucked up somewhere first.

Plodding through this wood with the sparse branches offering little or no protection from the deluge was miserable work.

He curled up tighter and slowly the shivering stopped as his body heat warmed the small space. The dampness was unpleasant but at least he was no longer getting any wetter. Eventually he slipped into sleep, another day closer to his goal.

He woke, hungry and cold an indeterminate number of hours later. The rain had not abated, and he sighed as he plodded out into it. He made a skimpy breakfast on the move, unfamiliar with enough of the edible plants down here on the surface to find as much as he'd have liked. After some half-hearted foraging he broke into a steady paced run once again.

He was getting closer. He had no idea where he was or how much further he'd have to go, but he could feel the Emerald tugging at his senses, calling him onwards. It was weak, unbalanced, but there.

When he'd tried to speed things up by calling on its power he'd smacked up against a steel wall. Something was being done to it, and t had left him with a dizzying headache and a marked reluctance to try again without knowing what was going on.

So he ran towards it, walking when he was too tired to run, and sleeping whenever he was too tired to even stumble. Slowly the landscape changed around him, from seashore to grassland to this damp, thin woodland.

The woodland thickened as the day wore on and after several hours either the rain became less heavy or the remaining, yellowing, foliage had become thick to be a reasonable shelter. Knuckles slowed to a walk and started looking around once again for something to stave off the lunchtime pangs.

He'd found some berries which he'd more or less decided over a few days experimenting, were edible but had only picked a handful when, without warning, a wracking pain shot through him.

His head snapped back and the berries scattered as he crashed down onto the damp forest floor, thrashing up the loose earth and leaves. It felt as though a crushing blow had driven straight through him chest, tearing flesh, splintering ribs, but as he desperately groped for the injury, he could find nothing.

Rolling to his knees, he doubled over and gasped for breath, looking around for his attacker but finding himself alone.

After several more moments that felt like ages, it let up and he fell forward, limp with the sudden relief. Without moving, breathing the damp, lead-mould-smelling air, he felt hesitantly, once more for the Master Emerald.

He flinched at the contact, at something raw, something broken and sharp edged to his mental touch.

"What is he doing?"

Knuckles staggered to his feet, and lunch driven from his mind, pushed himself to a run. Whatever it was, it had to be stopped.

* * *

"So you definitely think he has the Emerald?" Sally chewed her lip as she clarifed.

Sonic nodded vigorously. "I didn't see it, but yeah, that's the only thing that's ever had that effect on the rings!"

Sally's gaze become unfocussed in thought, Sonic waited in silence. They had both seen Knuckles' fierce defence and utter dedication to keeping the Emeralds safe. For one to be stolen suggested only two possibilities. Its Guardian had either been killed or captured – and it was almost impossible to imagine the latter happening while Knuckles was alive.

Sally stared a moment longer then pressed her lips tightly together and turned around.

"We've got to go in again," Sonic urged. "We've got to get it back! What he could do with that sort of power..."

Sally considered it. Her inclination, faced with such a potentially overwhelming threat was to dig in, lie low and plan for alternate means of escape. Sonic's, naturally, was to pile in and confront it.

She could see his point of view. They'd had so many long years of hiding and running, of 'saving what they could' and losing everything else, however important. Another retreat, however justified, was not an attractive prospect.

But even if they found the Master Emerald, it would surely be guarded with everything Robotnik had. What could they do against that? If they found Knuckles and if they got him out, would one more ally make the difference? Even assuming he was in a fit state to fight?

The risks set against the chances of success painted a gloomy picture and Sally shook her head slowly.

"Tell me about this explosion?" she asked instead.

Sonic nodded vigorously, waving his hands as he explained. "Even the bots got a wallop!"

"Whatever he''s trying to do with the Emerald isn't working then..." Bunnie mused aloud. "That's good, right?"

"For now," Sally said. "I don't imagine he'll be too put off by losing a couple of robots though. He'll keep trying."

Sonic nodded and returned to his urging. "So we _should_ get in there and see what's happening, right? I mean now we know he's got it."

"There was no sign of Knuckles?"

Sonic pulled a face. "I didn't get far enough to find out. I kinda figured after the big boom Robotnik would be kind of wary of visitors..."

Sally smiled. "That was bordering on sensibly cautious Sonic Hedgehog. I'm impressed."

Sonic tapped a foot. "Yeah yeah. So when do we go back in?"

"I'm not sure we do." Sally said.

Sonic frowned. "Uh hello? Surely we're better off going for it before he gets whatever-it-is actually working?"

"No," Sally said. "We use the time while he hasn't got it working to come up with a plan that actually _will_ let us do something about it. We need a way to retrieve something which is bound to be heavily guarded, that turned you into a raving, downright dangerous lunatic the last time you used it, and which we've got no idea how to use ourselves." She paused to let this sink in. "Not to mention the fact that Robotnik will come straight after us with everything he has if we _do _manage to get out of there with it."

Sally looked around at them all. "We've got nowhere to keep it safe if that happens." She paused. "We need to consider whether it's possible to destroy it."

"Destroy it! Are you nuts?" Sonic stared at her wide-eyed.

"No," Sally said calmly. "I'm trying to be realistic. Knuckles was a tough fighter and the Island had strong defences, but when it really came to it the Emerald was safe there because he could take the Island away from most attacks. Without that..."

Sonic pulled a face, then a thought struck him.

"If _we_ could get it to the Island...?"

"We wouldn't have the first clue where to start!" Sally exclaimed. "It's just not realistic."

"I hate that word," Sonic muttered. "So what are we going to do?"

"We need some time," she said. "I'm going to contact the other groups we've dealt with in the past. We need to slow things down, if we can run distraction raids on other targets in the city that might help. Meanwhile we need to keep up as normal a routine as possible. We still need patrols, and to keep a lookout. Robotnik might be too interested in his new acquisition to other out here for a while. Or he might not."

* * *

It was later that evening and as part of the 'normal routine' Sally wanted to maintain, Tails was visiting the sentries, taking them some supplies and snacks and collecting any news.

It was a job which Sally had slightly reluctantly allowed him to take on, which was reasonably safe, while allowing him to feel like one of the Freedom Fighters' active members.

Right now he leaning over the edge of one of their tree top lookout posts, listening to Antoine with a certain amount of disbelief.

"Ah, come off it Ant, I'm not so little I believe any old thing y'know."

"I am not pulling of your leg, young Tails," Antoine frowned. "I saw a person glowing in the sky and then they fell. You must tell the Princess."

"Yeah right, and have her tell me not to make up stories? It must have been a bot you saw, or a..." Tails waved his hands. "A shooting star or something."

"It was not a bot." Antoine insisted. "Or a star. I saw the arms and legs, it was a person. A flying person."

"A dragon then?" Tails said. "One who escaped?"

Antoine looked away for a moment. "None escaped."

"Well what do you think it was?"

"I do not know. It fell..." he waved his arms vaguely at the darkened treetops. "Over there. The hedgehog should search for it."

"Uh huh," Tails said, thinking privately what Sonic's likely answer would be to Ant telling him he should do anything. "Anyway. I brought supper."

Ant picked over the contents of the rucksack Tails pushed across the treetop structure to him.

"Hmm. Thanking you, this is very good. And you will tell the Princess my news, yes?"

"Uh yeah," said Tails. "I guess so. A flying person who crashed in the woods right?"

"Right."

Tails assured the skeptical coyote once more that he'd pass the improbable message along, and then climbed down the rope ladder and started along the darkening path.

The sun was low now, but some light filtered into the narrow paths and clearings, though the shadows were long and dark. Tails walked as boldly as he could. He was one of the Knothole Freedom Fighters now and he was scared of nothing in the Great Forest!

A sound of movement from behind a cluster of undergrowth to his right made him leap in the air, spinning his tails frantically to stay up in case a quick getaway was needed.

After a moment's alarm, he realised that this poised to flee position was not at all suitable for a bold member of the Freedom Fighters and landed again. He crept cautiously towards the sound, staying low behind the undergrowth. The noise had stopped, had whoever -- or whatever -- had made it heard him coming?

He froze behind the tangled brush, and was eventually rewarded by the sounds resuming. Slowly, and as silently as possible he edged sideways and craned his neck to see around the edge of the bush.

It was not a bot, that was the first thing he registered. The second thing was that he didn't know what sort of a creature it was. It had spines, but longer and thinner than any hedgehog's and its colour was impossible to determine through the mud and grime matting the shortish fur. It was piling materials up for a small fire and had a pile of mushrooms on a broad leaf beside it. Tails stared at the mushrooms. They were quite clearly the greycaps he'd been warned about at least a dozen times as deadly poisonous.

Surely this bedraggled creature wasn't about to tuck into them for supper? Tails stared, baffled and the thought crossed his mind that maybe this was Ant's flying person. Some weird alien that ate poison for supper. Maybe he had crashed and that was how he ended up such a mess.

But when the creature actually did raise one of the mushrooms to his mouth, Tails found he couldn't contain himself -- what if this thing really didn't know how dangerous they were?

He burst from his hiding spot, twirling his tails as fast as he could to propel himself and slapped the mushroom from the creature's hands.

"You can't eat that!"

The creature leapt at him, fists raised, and fearsomely spiked, Tails belatedly noticed.

Tails leapt back and flinched, "Unless you want to..." he yelped.

The creature stopped short and stared at him.

"You're a child," it said.

Tails straightened indignantly from his crouch. "I'm a Freedom Fighter," he said firmly.

The creature turned away. "Good for you," it said disinterestedly. "Why can't I eat those?"

"They're poisonous!" Tails said. He looked around for an alternative, "The berries are fine. Are you very hungry?"

"Yes." The creature looked him up and down again. "Not so hungry I would eat something without checking it first though. I would have only tasted the mushrooms today - I expect I would have realised they were inedible."

"Oh." Tails said. "What's inedible?"

"Can't be eaten. How old are you?"

Tails set his jaw. "Old enough. Who are you anyway? How come you're here and you don't even know what you can eat? I knew what I could eat when I was much smaller than you!"

The creature's lips twitched in what might have been the first smile Tails had seen there.

"I'm sure you did. Doubtless I did too when I was growing up in my own... land."

"Where's that?"

The not-quite smile disappeared completely. "Nowhere you need to know about."

Tails made a face. "Grown-ups always say stuff like that."

"Do they?" The creature had turned away to examine the berries but Tails was undeterred.

"Yeah, Sally and Sonic both – 'when you're older' you'll understand'," he mimicked.

"Sally?" Tails suddenly found himself the subject of an intense stare. "Sonic? _They're_ your freedom fighters?"

"Yeah," Tails said, "So? Everyone knows that."

"Everyone from around here anyway." Another long stare. "How close are we to their base?"

Tails hesitated. "Uh, I'm not sure I should say... I don't even know who you are."

It had suddenly struck the fox cub how much trouble he could just have got himself into, but the stranger just smiled grimly at him.

"My name is Knuckles."

Tails boggled. "You are? Sonic and Sally think... something happened to you." He paused then a defiant pout appeared on his face. "Probably they think you're dead but they try not to let me hear stuff like that. They think I'm too little to take it or something." He looked up stubbornly, daring Knuckles to contradict him.

"They don't think you're 'too little' to be out here alone though. Which makes me it think it must not be far."

"Did you fall out of the air?" Tails asked, suddenly remembering Antoine's message.

"What?" Knuckles looked puzzled at the sudden change of topic, but Tails was used to that too.

"Ant, one of our sentries, he saw someone glowing in the sky and said they fell. Was that you?"

Knuckles frowned. "No. But it could be important. Where is Sonic?"

"With Sally."

Knuckles sighed. "And where are they?"

"Knothole," Tails said promptly. Then, "Oh!"

Knuckles gave another very small smile. "You've given nothing away, cub I don't know where that is. But I do need to speak with them. You have my word I am no enemy. Not today."

Tails chewed his lip in indecision. "I think maybe you should stay here while I go get someone. I mean if you are Knuckles, I know they'd want to see you, but see I don't really know you are, and..."

"That will be fine. You do that."

Tails nodded, relieved, and launched himself into the air to clear the scrub, landing in a fast jogtrot on the other side.

A few moments after the foxcub had left the clearing, Knuckles scattered the unlit fire with a kick, and walked over to the direction the cub had taken, to examine the ground. After a few moments he rose, and set off in the same direction.


	3. Chapter 3

Tails hurtled into Knothole, feet only just touching the ground as he half-ran half-flew in his excitement.

"Sooonic!" he bellowed, "Aunt Sallyy!"

His high speed arrival and the shouting resulted in far more than just Sonic and Sally emerging to stare.

Tails pelted up to the hedgehog in the middle of the village and grinned back and forth from him to Sally.

"You'll never guess who I just found in the woods!"

Sonic glanced at Sally, grinning slightly. "Guess you'd better tell us then, big guy."

"Knuckles!" Tails declared.

The grin fell away, "Tails..."

Tails could see the disbelief growing on both face. "I really really did!"

Sally smiled and ducked down to be more at eye level.

"Tails, honey, we're really, really busy, and normally I'd love to play, but this is important."

Tails stamped his foot. "I'm not playing!"

Sonic hunkered down. "You really saw someone who said they were Knuckles?" he asked.

"Uh huh!" Tails nodded vigorously. Before he could elaborate there was a commotion at the edge of the village, where he'd arrived, people gasping and crying out in surprise.

"He really did," came a calm, unhurried voice.

Sonic shot to his feet, and Sally whirled round in surprise.

Knuckles ignored the stares from either side and walked steadily across the village, glancing around him at the wooden huts, vegetable gardens and encircling undergrowth with a measuring eye.

Tails looked in dismay from him to Sonic and Sally. "I told him to wait, I was really really careful not leave a trail back here..."

Knuckles gave him a glance. "Actually, he was. It was extremely difficult. You would have been safe from most trackers."

"Knuckles?"

Sally sounded dumbstruck.

"Told you so," Tails said, grinning.

"How?" Sally continued as though she hadn't heard him.

"The Emerald," Knuckles explained. "It's near here somewhere, I can feel it."

Sally shot a glance at Sonic.

"It's in Robotropolis," the hedgehog said. "We're pretty certain."

"Actually we were afraid that you might be too," Sally added.

"No," Knuckles said. "I avoided that."

He didn't sound particularly happy about it, the words were almost spat out, and Tails took a step back at the force in them.

Knuckles was already speaking again.

"I need to know the way into 'Robotropolis' if that's where it is, I need to know whatever you know about its defences. I need--"

"--to eat something and get some sleep by the look of you," Sally interrupted.

Sonic wrinkled his nose. "Not to mention a bath."

Tails stifled a giggle, but Knuckles glared at them. "You think there is time for that? There isn't! He's already managed to interfere with the structure of the Emerald. He's done something which is keeping it from me. Your own sentry saw what he's used it to do to at least one ignorant victim."

"Huh?" Sonic asked.

"Oh," Tails said. "Ant thought he saw someone 'glowing and flying' he said. Then they fell."

"You think it was someone trying to use the Emerald's power?"

"And failing!" Knuckles snapped. "How likely do you think it was that it was a _volunteer_?"

Sally winced. "I take your point – we've seen evidence here too of his experiments. There was an explosion---"

"When?"

"This morning."

Knuckles frowned but didn't comment further on that.

Sally stepped forward.

"We'll help. We will. But there's no point dashing in unprepared. How much good do you think you'll do charging in there half exhausted and getting yourself captured?"

Sonic smirked. "I wouldn't bother arguing, Knux, not when she gets _that_ tone of voice."

Knuckles' eyes narrowed. "What did you call me?"

"Knuckles?" Sonic said innocently.

Tails again stifled giggles, and then remembered something.

"You did _say_ you were hungry," he pointed out. "You were even going to try those stinky mushrooms." Knuckles glared at the cub, but Tails stuck his hands on his hips and held his ground. "You were too!"

Knuckles turned his back. "I do not have to put up with being harangued like this." He walked past Sonic and Sally, towards the far end of the village where it opened to the trees again.

"You do if you want information about Robotropolis," Sally said firmly. "I will not equip you to go out and get yourself killed or captured."

Knuckles kept walking. "I imagine I'll have ample opportunity to discover the place for myself."

Sally gaped. "This is insane! You're worse than Sonic!"

"Hey!" Sonic protested.

Sally didn't even glance at him.

"You're really just going to walk in there in this state? Look at you!"

Knuckles paused and glanced back. "A little mud and a few days of short rations is hardly sufficient to keep me from my duty. You insult me."

"Who do you think you're fooling?" Sally asked. "You won't fool the swatbots."

"I do not need to fool anyone," Knuckles continued calmly. "I am perfectly f-fine."

He faltered over the last word as he stumbled and Sally leapt on it instantly.

"Oh really?" she asked. "Tell me that again."

But Knuckles had turned away and had one hand to his temple in a puzzled, and uncomfortable posture. He shook his head in short quick flinches like someone trying to chase off flies.

"No. What is he doing..."

He took a few more steps forward, Sally a few paces behind him with a concerned frown on her face.

Suddenly he gave a shattering yell and went over backwards, kicking and gasping. Tails jumped and pressed against Sonic in alarm, only to find himself gently, but firmly pushed aside as the hedgehog ran to help Sally who had dropped to Knuckles' side and was trying to hold him still.

Tails looked up bewildered as others ran forward, either helpful or just curious. One stopped beside him.

Rosie.

"What's happening?" Tails asked.

"I'm not sure," Rosie admitted. "Sally, will sort it out though, don't you worry. Come on. Let's get inside – I expect she'll be wanting a meal and a bed made up for that young... whatever. Doesn't look like he'll be moving on tonight."

Tails followed, glad to have something to do to help.

Behind him, the hubbub continued.

* * *

When he finally regathered hits wits, to find himself sprawled on Sally's sofa, under the watchful gaze of at least half a dozen beasts Knuckles shrugged off the restraining hands and sat up.

Sally, made her way to the front of the small group without effort.

"Want to tell me again how you're 'fine'?" She asked. "Just what in the world was that?"

"If I knew, I might not be in such a hurry to 'charge in' as you put it." Knuckles squeezed his eyes shut briefly against the memory of the pain. "It has something to do with whatever Robotnik is trying to do with the Master Emerald. It's doing... damage."

Sally frowned. "To you, as well as it?"

Knuckles' voice was flat. "Do I look damaged?"

Sally looked him up and down skeptically.

"Aside from the fact I've spent three days high-speed hiking through the woods without having a clue what was safe to eat," he added belatedly. "It doesn't work quite like that."

"But you felt what he was doing?" Sally confirmed.

"Yes. In a way."

Across the room, Rosie clattered pans from the stove to the table. "Dinner's up. No reason not to eat while we talk."

The smell of cooking food, defeated Knuckles' stomach, which betrayed him by growling loudly. He looked around the warm room, at the fading light filtering through the curtained windows, and the anxious faces between him and the door.

"One night," he said. "And you tell me what you know about the city."

Sally smiled. "It's a deal."

Everyone moved to the slightly crowded dining table.

Tails leapt to sit beside Sonic, Sally took a seat the other side with Rosie on her left. Bunnie joined them, after beckoning Knuckles over.

"This is it for tonight," she explained. "Dulce is out on patrol, Rotor - you haven't met him - he's up his eyeballs in the latest gadget. Ant'll be in later."

Knuckles tried to restrain himself for the sake of basic courtesy, but ate his way steadily through everything that was put in front of him, and took Rosie up on the offer of several more helpings.

Sally continued to press for details which he was mostly unable to give about what was happening with the Master Emerald. It was hard to translate the simple gut feelings into anything rational that could be put into speech.

"You found your way here, just because you could tell which way the Emerald was?"

"Yes."

"You think you could find it in Robotropolis?"

Knuckles hesitated, a large hunk of bread, halfway to his mouth. "I'm not sure. In an enclosed area, among streets, I'm not sure how much use just a direction would be..."

He shrugged. It didn't matter. Easy or difficult he would find it.

"I didn't leave," he suddenly pointed out to Sally. "So you will give me the information I need?"

It was a question that would require some time and Knuckles stiffened when Sally did not immediately answer. He thought he probably trusted her, but didn't really have that much of a basis to go on.

Sally nodded slowly. "After we've eaten, we'll see what we can do. We've been raiding there a fair while now."

Finally everyone had finished the meal, and the apple pie that followed. Knuckles found he was stifling a yawn and glanced cautiously around in case anyone had noticed.

Everyone helped clear the dishes, before Rosie disappeared and Sally pulled out the small handheld computer, Nicole.

Knuckles watched curiously. He'd seen the device before but never being used at close quarters. An image appeared, floating three-dimensional above the table and he reached out a paw to it experimentally.

"Interesting."

Sally smiled but didn't comment. "Nicole, pull up a plan of Robotropolis."

The image changed and Knuckles leaned forward, wanting to take it all in. Sally pointed.

"The perimeter is guarded, but it's a wide area and the bots are limited, getting in is normally the least difficult bit. Once you're in the difficulty is finding your way around. I knew it pretty well once but without Nicole even I'd be lost sometimes. So much has changed and new buildings keep getting put up and others torn down. Robotnik doesn't leave much alone for long."

She pointed at a spot on the image. "Nicole, zoom."

The image grew in size and detail as the computer obeyed.

"This where the main concentration of his forces is. When we've gone in after prisoners or experimental weaponry, this is the main base of operations. It's heavily guarded. We tend to use the tunnel system below the city for access."

The image changed without prompting this time.

"Thankyou, Nicole. You can get right to the centre of the city that way, but it's dangerous, you never quite know what you're going to stick your nose out in the middle of."

Knuckles nodded grimly.

"I see."

It wasn't really much worse than he'd expected. He'd known broadly the technology level he was facing and could have guessed from the amount of force brought to bear on the Island that here, in Robotnik's own city, things would be worse.

Sally was watching his expression. After a moment she continued.

"When it comes to getting out, it's whatever works. If can make it into the tunnels without being spotted, you've got a good chance of an easy run home. You don't want to get followed down there though."

Knuckles grimaced. Being chased through the dark, branching passages? Trying to reach the next passageway before a laser bolt reached _you?_ No. Not something you'd want at all.

"If you end up having to escape through the city, the swatbots are the main risk. There's lots of cover but they'll happily blast any pile of junk they think you might be behind. Best strategy is find somewhere out of sight and drop into the tunnels from there."

Sonic smirked and put in, "Unless you can just outrun the swatbutts of course."

Sally rolled her eyes. "Thank you for that, Sonic."

Sonic tipped her a mocking salute. "Hey, no problem, just doing my bit."

Knuckles took another long look at the plans. It was not going to be easy. Not at all.

He sighed, and that triggered off the urge to yawn all over again.

Rosie popped her head around a door Knuckles had not previously noticed. "There's hot water if you want it and I've made up the spare bed."

Knuckles hesitated but Sally had already repocketed the the small computer. "It won't be long before I turn in either. The morning's will do for planning."

Knuckles gave in. He supposed really he'd given in to the idea of staying the night when he hadn't left as soon as the spasming pain had passed. No point reopening the debate now. And he supposed it would be quite nice to be able to rid of the past two days' grime.

He followed Rosie into the next room where a tin bath was steaming beside a crackling fireplace. He was surprised at the steam, wouldn't it take a long time to heat that much water? Did they have a device to do it for them? He hadn't noticed any overt signs of technology around the village.

On the Island there were hot springs, but they were rather sulphurous, and he'd never bother to boil this much water on the small cooking fires he used. Most of his ablutions consisted of a quick rinse in one of the rivers.

So it was rather cautiously he dipped his foot in and he almost fell over as he withdrew it quickly at the heat. After a few moments he tried again. It wasn't really too hot, just unexpected and not what he was used to.

Slowly he accustomed himself to the heat and slid into the tub. it was rather pleasant after the initial shock and certainly did a better job than the cool river water of easing out the aches along with the dirt.

It also left him lethargic and he found himself sliding into sleep almost as soon as he hit the soft, fresh smelling bed in the corner of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Knuckles slept deeply, waking just past midnight, thirsty and momentarily confused. The room was darker, and warmer than either the Emerald Chamber or the rough outdoor shelters he'd scraped for himself. After a moment he remembered where he was and located a glass of water on the bedside table, before letting sleep take him again.

His sleep after the interruption wasn't quite as peaceful. Now the worst of the tiredness had been eased he found himself turning over the problem of the city in his half-conscious mind. How could he really hope to get in there? His last encounter with Robotnik had hardly been a shining success.

Involuntarily, his time as the dictator's prisoner crept into his thoughts. He tossed and turned trying to put it aside and get back to sleep. He was only partly successful -- he managed the sleep, but his dreams were of twisted metal shapes that used to be real people, fire, and sparks arcing across flesh.

A chill metal hand on his arm was the last straw and he jerked from sleep, dream and waking mixed in sudden panic. Something pulled as his wrist as he struggled. He yanked himself backwards, registering too late the startled expression on the face of Bunnie Rabbot before he lost his balance and landed, in a tangle in of sheets on the floor.

"Good morning," she said, dryly. "Nice to see you again too, sugar."

Knuckles struggled to his feet attempting to both calm his racing pulse and regain some semblance of dignity.

"I..." he started, before he'd really thought through any explanation. "You startled me."

"No kidding?" Bunnie looked at the rumpled sheets and her voice softened slightly. "Bad dream?"

Knuckles took a deep breath, and could hear the shudder in it. He could lie of course, he was not obliged to admit to such a ridiculous weakness as nightmares, even to an ally. The concern in the rabbit's eyes looked genuine though. It was not her fault and he couldn't help wondering how close she'd come to becoming the pitiful, horrifying creature in his nightmare. And so he told the truth. Or a part of it anyway.

"Reasonably unpleasant, yes." He ran a hand, which he was pleased to note did not shake, over his quills smoothing them into place and feeling sweat there. So much for the nice calming bath...

"Robotnik?" Bunnie perched herself on the edge of the bed, and Knuckles was not certain he wanted her there, was not certain he wanted to make any more of a discussion of this. Slowly, he scooped up the scattered patchwork blankets from the floor and placed them on the foot of the bed. After a moment he spoke again.

"He does have a rather twisted creativity when it comes to asking questions." Knuckles managed to keep his voice calm and even, but he couldn't prevent his eyes flicking to Bunnie's metal arm.

She followed his glance.

"There was a bot?" She deduced, her voice even softer. "A roboticised person?"

A flinch of a nod, and Knuckles started aggressively folding the blankets at the end of bed, pointedly not looking at Bunnie.

"And he made it... hurt you?"

Knuckles' furious focus on the bedsheets was obviously answer enough because Bunnie winced.

"And then along comes daft girlie Bunnie Rabbot and grabs you mid-nightmare with her big ol' ugly robo-arm huh?" She moved a bit closer, took the other end of the blanket he was struggling with and untwisted it. "I guess that's a pretty good reason for scooting off the end of the bed in a heap..."

Knuckles straightened the edges of the now folded blanket and didn't answer. After a moment Bunnie cleared her throat and broke the silence again.

"Actually, I guess it sort of comes back to why I came up here to wake you anyway."

Knuckles struggled for a moment to regain his composure and faced her.

"Sir Charles arrived in the night. Sonic's uncle Chuck? He..." Bunnie hesitated and Knuckles felt a flash of irritation. How fragile did she think him? He should never have admitted anything at all.

After a moment she continued, speaking faster as if she could get whatever it was she needed to say over with faster and more easily that way. "He was captured, right at the start. Roboticised."

Knuckles did not flinch and was pleased with himself for the feat. Bunnie looked at him anxiously.

"But he's himself otherwise. In his head. I mean he's not like the others. He's in control."

Knuckles looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "Does he have information I need?"

"About the city -- absolutely. He stayed there, after he was able to think for himself again, he thought he'd be most useful as a spy for us there. It was very brave." She sounded almost defensive.

"It is." Knuckles allowed. He wondered how such a thing had happened. If a mind remained to be recovered did that mean the robots... prisoners... knew what had been done to them? The thought was unpleasant, but it was broad daylight, he was safe and rested and fed and the nightmare was firmly put aside. He could speak with one of them without unwanted memories colouring his reactions.

Bunnie looked relieved. She hadn't expected to be greeted with such alarm and probably was far too used to people reacting badly to her half-robot appearance.

"He's next door," she said. "And there's breakfast.

Knuckles nodded. "Thank you. I will be in shortly."

The rabbit left and Knuckles used the basin of water left out to wash himself as much as possible. He checked his reflection in a small mirror, ensuring nothing of the night fears remained visible on his face.

Then he sighed and went to join the others.

He could tell the room was full before he entered. The hedgehog's voice carried and he was being particularly loud in any case, laughing and shouting. Knuckles paused in the doorway and watched silently for several minutes.

Sonic was stood beside and had an arm flung round a clearly robotised hedgehog of a similar height. Even through the changes that had been inflicted on him he was recognisably related and Knuckles was surprised to see the animation in his movement and feeling in his eyes.

He did not move or react like a machine. Clearly it was true that the process, or at least the mental part or it was reversible.

Knuckles watched a moment longer, absorbing the fact that this creature, who was Sonic's elder by some distance had chosen, even after what had been done to him, to stay in the city where it had happened, where he'd been imprisoned and so horribly changed. Stayed to do what he could to prevent it happening to anyone else.

Knuckles found himself impressed and determined not to insult him by flinching at his features when introduced.

Gathering himself with that in mind, he crossed the room.

Sonic turned, hearing him approach and grinned.

"This is my Uncle Chuck!" He announced.

Knuckles inclined his head. "So I've been told." He addressed the older hedgehog directly. "It is an honour."

He did not offer a handshake as the surface dwellers did. You raised your hand to your enemies, not your allies and it was a custom he had not yet acquainted himself to.

"You have information about the city?" he asked instead.

The metallic hedgehog nodded and Knuckles found himself the recipient of an appraising glance himself.

"I have seen the Chaos Emerald there."

The _Master_ Emerald Knuckles thought, but didn't make the correction aloud. It was in his own interests if even allies underestimated the gem's importance.

"The experiments have not been a success as you've probably gathered by now. He hasn't managed to use it directly as an energy source. Any device connected to it, simply disintegrates under the sheer force of the thing."

A look of disgust crossed the metallic features. "So he resorted to using prisoners. He theorised that it required a living interface to control the energy."

Knuckles inclined his head again, there was a question there, amid the revulsion but he was not willing to be drawn into details.

After the moment Sir Charles continued. "That did work -- in the sense that the poor wretches absorbed the energy."

"But could not control it," Knuckles finished.

A nod.

"How is it guarded?"

Sir Charles snorted. "Less so after it accidentally blew up half the swatbots assigned around it. That was getting expensive. The building itself is fortified of course. Security cameras and spyeyes are on permanent watch. It's the most security I've ever seen. Even with all his other weapon development programmes."

Knuckles listened without comment. It was useful data but the odds would not be the deciding factor.

"What about the old bait and switch?" Sonic suggested enthusiastically. "We kick off a big raid on some other part of the city, draw them off, then... about face and get in there and whisk it away?"

Sir Charles shook his head. "I'm not sure that would work this time. Everything is more expendable than that Emerald."

"I agree." Knuckles said. "It will be guarded no matter what. Distraction will not work."

Sonic pulled a face. "So what's your great idea then?"

"I will go in there and get it."

Sonic blinked. "Just like that?"

"Yes."

Sally put a hand to her forehead. "It's usually Sonic I'm telling to be realistic, but..."

Knuckles cut her off. "You showed me the tunnels. I'll use those. When I'm close enough I will tunnel directly to wherever the Emerald is. They may be guarding entrances. I doubt they are particularly watching the floor."

Sonic cocked his head to one side. "You know that sounds almost 'realistic' That things on the ol' ground floor, Unc?"

Sir Charles nodded. "Yes. A basement level. He probably thought that would be harder to reach. Only one entrance."

Sonic grinned. "So far!"

Knuckles nodded, curtly. "Fine. Tell me how to get there."

Sonic looked puzzled. "Can do, but I'm going to be along to do the tourguide thing..."

Knuckles folded his arms across his chest. "I asked for directions, not a guide. I don't want anyone's," for once he employed some diplomacy and finished with "help" rather than the 'interference' which had been on the tip of his tongue.

Sally, barely looked up from her own plans spread across the table. "Too complex. Do you want to be staring at a map while trying to pick a passage with swatbots bearing down on you? Sonic knows the way." She looked up at last. "And the alternatives if anything goes wrong."

Knuckles met her gaze for long moments, but Sally had stubborn down to a tee after years of experience with Sonic and was unflinching.

Knuckles snatched his gaze away in impatience. "Fine. Now?"

"Half an hour." Sally looked down at her plans. "I'm going to take a team to the other side of the city and see what we can do by way of distraction. I know that might not work well this time, but if there is a concentration of forces guarding the Emerald we might be able to get away with more than usual."

Knuckles scowled at that piece of opportunism, but had little choice but to wait.

Sally met his eyes again, more sympathetically this time. "Anyway, it would be good to wait until Sonic can get a ring."

Knuckles knew little about the rings, beyond the abstract sense that they were somehow connected to the Emerald. They certainly reacted to it, and Sonic had said they had seemed more effective in its presence.

If so it was unwise to turn down any slight advantage they might give.

"Alright," he allowed. "Half an hour."

He went back into the bedroom. He didn't really feel like resting, but he'd had little sleep over the past few days and it might just be another tiny edge. Years of discipline meant that he was quite able, after a few moments, to put his concerns out of mind and close his eyes until Sonic returned.

* * *

"Sonic." Sally pulled at his arm and drew him to one side as Knuckles closed the door behind him, too focussed on the prospect ahead to look back. Sally shot a glance after him then turned again to Sonic as the other left to get ready for their parts in the distraction raid.

"What we discussed before..." she said. "About the Emerald. If you can't retrieve it..."

Sonic stared. "You can't still be serious? Destroy it?" He waved his hands in front of him. "Woah! Nuh uh! Knuckles would never agree to that! " There was a pause. "You haven't told him have you? I'd never get out of there with my head!"

Sally sighed. "If this goes badly, none of us might, but would you really prefer Robotnik to keep it? Do you think I like the idea?" She looked at the door again. "Whatever he's doing to it now is damaging it and Knuckles is feeling the effects -- do you think it hasn't crossed my mind to wonder what destroying it would do? To him?"

Sonic hadn't, and he paled slightly. "And you think that's the best Plan B?"

"I do." Sally grabbed his arm again when he carried on slowly shook his head. "Sonic!"

Sonic shook her hand off. "I know, I know. I don't have a better idea and Robotnik can't keep it. But... I don't know if I can."

Sonic was not much given to introspection and in general it was Sally left to ponder the morals while he got on with things and took the good with the bad to get the job done. But this was more than he felt quite able to make a decision on and it was all to easy to picture Knuckles' reaction. If he survived to have one that was.

"We said we'd help," he finally said quietly, making it a question.

Sally moved away and started picking up the plans left out on the table. She didn't meet Sonic's eyes.

"I know. But however powerful it is and however important, it's just an object, and Knuckles is just one person. We've got all of Knothole, all of the survivors to think about."

Sonic hesitated a moment longer. "I don't like it."

"Neither do I."

Sonic sighed and turned for the door. "I'd better get along to the Pool then. We're going to need all the help we can get."

He didn't add that he might also need a quick exit from a vengeful echidna, but neither did he protest further. The fact he walked rather than dashed to the door spoke of his opinion clearly enough.


	5. Chapter 5

The tunnels were dark and damp but that wasn't the real reason for Knuckles' discomfort. The ancient passages under Angel Island were darker, and in many cases so wet that you had to paddle through them.

The tunnels here smelled wrong. A sharp, metallic taint, unpleasantly like the taste of blood when you split your lip. Like the metallic sharp edged chill that thwarted his attempts to reach the Master Emerald with his mind.

He put that thought aside, along with the temptation it engendered to reach out and try just once more. He fixed his eyes instead on the dim outline of the hedgehog moving ahead of him.

Sonic seemed, if not comfortable here, at least not outright nervous. He froze at a sound which made Knuckles jump. Knuckles scowled and stilled, chiding himself and vowing to quell his nerves.

He listened as the sound came closer. It was metallic too, the clink of hard feet on hard surfaced ground. Sonic waved and they both pressed close against the wall with practised stillness.

Knuckles breathed deep and slow, blotting out the fine details of his location. He had waited, silently watchful for an enemy many times before. He could wait now.

Sonic was just as still, though close beside him Knuckles was aware of his tension, he was all but vibrating with it. Obviously waiting came far harder to him, and for some reason that was a comfort. He was not entirely outmatched by the hedgehog's confidence and familiarity with this place. Their skills were unequally matched, but matched nonetheless.

A light rounded the corner, splashing a wet gleam across the floor and walls. Both Knuckles and Sonic leapt towards it, but as the light shifted, the wet metallic gleam bathed its bearer as well and Knuckles hesitated for a scant moment before striking. The creature - which was no longer a creature - stared at him, and his thoughts snapped back to the gloating amusement of Robotnik that these awful things had once been people.

Before he could do more than pause, the thing had been bowled over by the hedgehog's attack and struck the floor with a clatter, the unpleasant red light dimming from its staring eyes.

Sonic gave him a small smile which contained far too much understanding for his liking.

"I know," he said, though no comment had been made. "But you can't give them half a chance or they'll be on you and screaming for bigger backup. They're all hooked up with communicators links to their base."

Knuckles nodded, slowly and looked down again at the broken bot. It had been a canine of some sort, long faced and wide eyed. He shuddered once and once again tried to renew his resolve.

"Which way?" he demanded.

Sonic pointed. "Not far."

They moved off again, and this time Knuckles kept his attention firmly focussed on the job in hand. He could not afford to be distracted. Finding and retrieving the Master Emerald was what counted. He could do nothing for the victims of someone else's lost battle. Nor was it his place to try. He had a responsibility that trumped the concerns of those on the surface and they would not live to fight their battle unless he fulfilled it.

"Not far" turned out to be a relative term, and the discomfort and anxiety made it seem far far longer. Sonic led the way and Knuckles could only follow. Come to think of it maybe that had been part of the reason for his dislike of the situation from the start. He was not used to having to depend on anyone other than himself and it rankled more than he might have expected.

Eventually Sonic slowed and came to a halt. There was nothing in particular to distinguish this spot from any other as far as Knuckles could see, but the hedgehog looked certain. He pointed upwards.

"Should be right underneath," he said.

"How do you know?" Knuckles asked, distrustful of this casual confidence.

"Distance from the last turn," Sonic shrugged. "That kind of thing."

They both listened for any clue as to what awaited above.

Knuckles wished he had more to go on than 'that kind of thing' but turned his attention to the problem of breaking through. However he did it it would have to be quick. They were counting on the majority of the guards to be outside the room, but they couldn't bet against there being a few inside Or even the chance of them arriving just as Robotnik was in the middle of doing whatever it was he was doing.

Knuckles almost wished that would be the case. He would rather enjoy a chance to put and end to this at the source.

He examined the roof of the tunnel as he thought. The metal was a thin skin over a chickenwire mesh holding back the bare earth. He'd torn an experimental hole in it earlier in the trip. Presumably there was some sort of floor up there too. Tiles should shatter easily. Metal flooring would be more difficult. Not impossible, but not fast, and not quiet.

He tapped the wall thoughtfully, then shrugged. He was going up one way or another so where was the benefit in thinking it through. What difference would it make to know?

The only problem now was how to get high enough to put a bit of force into the digging, but a few strikes at the side walls soon loosened a pile of rubble to stand on.

Sonic watched, ready to leap through the hole as soon as there was room. Knuckles would have liked to be first, but the hedgehog was faster, and if there was a more solid floor than he hoped it might take him some time to scramble through.

Sonic bounced on his toes and Knuckles indicated he was ready. A quick nod and then he flung himself into the work, burrowing as he never had before. Harder than the frantic scramble out of the Sandopolis tunnels in the soaking darkness a mere few days ago.

When the floor finally gave, in threw down a shower of dust and debris and Knuckles staggered slightly, blinking it clear of his eyes. Sonic, standing a bit further back was in a better position and leapt as soon as it cleared. Knuckles was only a half beat behind him, grasping the edges of the hole and launching himself upwards.

There was a moment's tense pause for a bare second before the two swatbots, spun towards the noise. They had clearly heard and been waiting. Now the real question was how long? Had they had time to call for reinforcements. What observation cameras and security were in place?

Without words Sonic and Knuckles leapt at one bot each. Sonic dispatched his a fraction before Knuckles and leapt to smash the cameras mounted in the corners of the room.

Knuckles spared him a glance as he dispatched them, them slowed and stared at the reason they had come. The Master Emerald stood upright in the centre of the white tiled room, surrounded by a tangle of machinery and wires. Amber lights flashed on the panels of the console which was the only other feature of the room.

Sonic glanced at them. "At a guess that means something's not working as planned."

Knuckles barely heard him. He stepped towards the Emerald and a horrified gasp tore from his throat. Three heavy black metal rods had been driven clear through it. Two horizontally, at 90 degrees to one another, and a third directly down through the top, pinioning it in position.

Sonic whistled through his teeth and glanced at Knuckles who found himself frozen to the spot in horror. After a moment Knuckles stepped closer. The edges of the bore holes had started to crystalise again already, spiky clouded formations growing out of the clear green gem and trapping the rods even more firmly. He reached out a hand, which he could barely keep from trembling, to touch the damage, cautiously, as one might dab at a bruise or a scab to see if it still hurt.

Behind him, Sonic was anxiously scanning at the room and edging towards the locked door.

"Knuckles," he prompted after a moment. "We need to get moving."

Knuckles tore his eyes from the Emerald and gave a measuring tug on one of the rods. They spanned the room, disappearing into walls and roof. He drew back a heavy fist and struck as hard as he could to no effect.

Sonic tapped a finger on one then stepped well clear, ducked down and then flung himself into a spindash at the nearest. The noise was tremendous, but the effect negligible. When he dropped to his feet, panting and breathless the slick metal was unmarked.

Knuckles struggled to think. He had not been prepared for anything like this. To find the Emerald and be unable to retrieve it. They'd brought no cutting equipment, and even if Knothole's fighters had such it was hard to think than it would work where his and Sonic's attacks had not.

He cast his gaze around the room in growing desperation, and caught the wary look on the hedgehog's face. Guessing its meaning he snapped, "I will not leave it here."

Sonic raised his hands. "What else can we do? There's going to be bots through that door any second. Even if they missed it on the cameras they'll be here to see why they've gone dead We need to get out, come back..."

"We won't get another chance! " Knuckles eyes were wide, wild. "They'll move it, guard it more, surprise won't work twice. This is the only chance! I won't give it up!"

Sonic grabbed his arm and tried to tug him towards the hole. "There's nothing we can do here. Nothing except get ourselves caught! That's not gonna help!"

Knuckles pulled away furiously and swung without thinking. Sonic ducked and Knuckles' fist caught the strap of his pack, shredding it and spilling the contents across the metal floor. A ring bounced and clattered and something heavy and paper-wrapped thumped on the floor, wires protruding from it.

Sonic leapt at the package and Knuckles went rigid with suspicion.

"What is that?"

Sonic was jamming things back in the pack.

"What is it!" Knuckles swung again and encumbered with the fallen pack, Sonic didn't quite manage to avoid being sent sprawling. Things scattered across the floor once again and Knuckles pounced on the package.

"This is explosive," he said. A sick sense of betrayal spread from his guts. "You never said you had this. Why wouldn't you suggest trying to break the rods with this?"

The hedgehog was up on his feet, looking angry but also defensive.

"You want to blow us both to kingdom come?" he demanded.

"No." Knuckles said flatly. "And I can't believe you do either. So why?"

Sonic jabbed a finger at the door again. "We haven't got time for this!"

Knuckles flew at him, bowling them both to the ground. "What were you going to do!"

The door burst open in a blast of heat and noise, but not before Sonic had yelled, "Destroy it, alright! If we couldn't get it back I was going to make sure Robotnik didn't get to keep it!"

The first blasts of laser fire sizzled around them, but Knuckles was barely aware of them in the depth of his disbelief. He wasn't even sure that explosive would do permanent harm to the Emerald, but that anyone would try...

He was still staring when the more accurate of the bots finally placed a shot on target. For a moment the suddenness of the pain was so startling and unexpected it barely registered. Just one more unpleasant event in this nightmare day. He noticed when he started falling forward though. Tried to put out a hand to stop himself collapsing right on top of the hedgehog and found his limbs too sluggish to respond. He crashed down, blinking stupidly as Sonic squirmed out from beneath him and resumed tugging at his arm.

"Knuckles! Come on. Screw both plans. We just need to get out now. Move. Come on."

Knuckles fought to keep his eyes open, shifted his head to get the Emerald in view. Tried to organise his legs to carry him to it and only succeeded in flopping a few inches. All was noise and overly bright light and the persistent nagging of the hedgehog's complaints and interruptions. It would be easier, much easier to let it all slip away. Just for a moment. Just a few seconds to rest and order his thoughts...

Knuckles closed his eyes.

* * *

"Knuckles!" Sonic shouted, a handful of inches away, as the echidna's disoriented struggles stopped and he slipped into unconsciousness. "Come on! Move it!"

Sonic leapt at the nearest bots to put them out of commission before returning to Knuckles' side. He yanked at his arm and managed to get him halfway to his knees, but he was limp and an impossible dead weight while under fire.

The next blast singed Sonic's fur and he threw another glance at the Emerald and the explosive which lay at his feet. More bots were already streaming into the room. This was exactly what Sally had been afraid of.

But they'd meant to eliminate the Emerald alone and although Sonic had predicted that Knuckles would resist the idea, he'd misjudged how completely and had never intended to have to deal with choosing whether to leave him as well.

Another bot approached and Sonic leapt again, wondering why they hadn't already been shot fatally. Easy targets in such a confined space. The ring lay in a corner, out of reach without leaving Knuckles unguarded. The hole they'd entered by was closer, but that would mean making the decision. Leaving.

Still delaying the moment of choosing Sonic leapt at another bot, before turning back to Knuckles. To his horror though, he was no longer laying where he'd left him. Instead one of the bots was retreating, carrying the unconscious echidna. Sonic leapt towards him, but there were three more, four more five more, between him and the door and then it was closed. The bots closer in and Sonic thought the shots seemed to be getting closer as he leapt and dodged around the room.

He threw a final glance at the door, then ducked, grabbed up the explosive package and dived for the hole. As he fell he threw the package over his shoulder. Right into the line of fire.

The blast brought most of the floor down behind him, but he managed to scramble to his feet and run, weaving his way down the dark passageways, half stifled with dust and smoke and the smell of singed fur.

The was no pursuit, or at least none that came within earshot, and he staggered back to Knothole before the sun was at its highest. Somehow that seemed strange. The day felt as though it ought to be well over by now.

People left the huts to stare at his ragged state as he crossed the village, not looking at any of them. He staggered into Sally's hut and she ran to meet him, still wearing her backpack and brushing soot from her fur after her own raid.

"What happened?" she said, her eyes running over him scanning for injuries.

"I don't know." Sonic said dully. "We didn't get it. I let off the explosive, but not in any sort of way we'd planned, I just lobbed it as I ran. Knuckles..."

He futilely wiped at the sweat and dust again. "I don't know. The swatbots took him. He might be..."

He hesitated and finished slowly. "...might still be alive. I don't know."

Someone had put a glass of water on the tale beside him, Sonic lifted it without registering who and gulped.

"There was no way of getting the Emerald out quickly. Knuckles wouldn't see it. He would have stayed. I tried to make him leave. We.... fought. He found the explosive.

Sally closed her eyes. "And you don't know if it went off?"

Sonic grimaced. "It went off. I just don't know what it did."

Sally worried her lower lip. "And Knuckles was captured?"

Sonic grimaced. "I _think_ so. He was out cold but..."

He thought hard trying to remember the scene. They'd avoided shooting at him while he'd been next to Knuckles. It was when he'd left his side to attack that they'd grabbed him. And when they had they'd hurried out. Not even stopping to try for Sonic as well...

Sonic puzzled over that for a moment. _They didn't want Knuckles hit again in the crossfire? They wanted him alive._

"I think they did want him caught not killed," he finally said, aloud.

Sally looked not in the slightest reassured by the news. "I don't think that can be good." She pulled off the backpack and flung it carelessly to the table. Sonic realised she hadn't commented on how her own raid had gone.

"He was trying to use prisoners in experiments with the Emerald..."

The same thought had just arrived in Sonic's mind. "He must think he has a better chance of getting something to work with Knuckles."

"Knuckles can already use the Emerald," Sally agreed.

"But he'd never cooperate!"

Sally sighed. "Not willingly."

Left unsaid was the question of how willing one would have to be to get the desired result.

"I doubt the others he used were exactly volunteers."

Sonic bounced on his toes. Unfortunately this was not the first time he'd had to leave someone behind in Robotropolis, but it never got easier, and this time he was even more directly responsible than usual. If Knuckles hadn't realised what he'd intended to do he might have been able to convince him to try again. If they hadn't been fighting each other instead of watching the door, he'd never have been caught.

But all the same arguments about the Emerald being even more tightly guarded now, held just as true for any attempt to get Knuckles out. If Robotnik really did think he could use the echidna as some sort of component in whatever twisted machine he was constructing around the Emerald then security would be at the very tightest. Knuckles had said it himself They wouldn't get the same chance twice.

Sally watched his face as he ran thought this logic.

"Charles will keep an eye on it for us," she assured him. "If there's any chance at all..."

Sonic sighed. "I know. So what now?"

Sally shrugged. "We wait."

"Again," Sonic added. "I was afraid of that."


	6. Chapter 6

Knuckles blinked slowly, unable to make sense of what he was seeing through blurred vision. After a few moment things swam into view. Red and grey blobs resolved themselves into features and he blinked down at his own bare feet and the grey metal floor clear inches below his toes.

The realisation only brought more disorientation and he tried to raise his head to look around. When he failed, the first stirrings of alarm joined the dazed confusion. The futile impulse to struggle brought no result either and he looked again at his feet, finding he couldn't so much as move his toes.

He settled for looking, forcing himself stay calm and trying to reason out what little he could see. Clearly he was restrained somehow, an uncomfortable, but vague pressure around his chest and arms suggested something holding him off the ground. He could see nothing to prevent movement so absolutely though, which suggested he was either more injured than he cared to consider or something else was at work. Drugs? Or something worse? Something related to whatever it was had stolen the lives and bodies of the unfortunate roboticised surface dwellers?

Panic rose again and again he struggled to contain it. His breathing quickened and he noted it. It wasn't entirely a voluntary action, but it did suggest he wasn't completely immobilised. He suspected robots didn't have a fear reflex.

Apart from the floor and his own lower body he could see little. Cables or similar trailed on the ground and disappeared behind him and a slight glow suggested there was a light behind there somewhere as well. The room was slightly chilly, or perhaps that was just his body's reaction to shock and injury it was hard to say and the sharp, bright light made the room look clinical and unpleasant in any case.

The silence suggested that the hedgehog was either not present or still unconscious. Anger joined the emotional mix at the thought of his lies and Knuckles found he couldn't bring himself to care which of the possibilities it was.

He rolled his eyes at a sound from his left, but couldn't peer far enough to see. Footsteps tapped across the hard floor and came into view. They were vaguely familiar but it wasn't until a hand grasped his jaw and lifted his head that Knuckles recognised Robotnik's crawling henchman Snively.

The hedgehog was forgotten as Knuckles shuddered in sheer reflex recollection of his last encounter with them, and the small part of his awareness not taken up with trying not to panic, noted that shivering was apparently also not prevented by whatever kept him from struggling deliberately.

"Guardian," Snively said in a sneered greeting. Not that Knuckles could blame him for the mockery, he had hardly done an outstanding job of keeping anything, including himself safe recently.

Snively released his jaw and Knuckles' head dropped helplessly forward again, jerking his neck sharply and leaving him staring at his feet again.

Snively drew a small device from his pocket and crouched down. The words "What are you doing rose unbidden in Knuckles' throat and went unsaid as he found he could no more speak than he could move. He watched as Snively cupped one foot loosely, watched as he touched the device against his bare sole. He failed to pull away, failed to cry out, as what felt like a hot coal was pressed hard against his flesh. His breath caught and for a moment he feared he'd lost control even of his ability to breath, and then Snively withdrew the device, and straightened, pocketing it.

He walked out of sight -to the door?- without even glancing at Knuckles and spoke, presumably through an intercom.

"Sir? It appears we have achieved the desired effect. If you would like to view the prisoner."

Another set of footsteps tapped across the room and into Knuckles' limited line of sight. Black trousers and red, almost shiny jacket covered an immense bulk and Knuckles knew, though he'd never seen the man before, that this was Robotnik.

The surmise was confirmed when he heard the voice. Another mocking drawl.

"Hello, Guardian."

Knuckles was coming to loathe the sound of that title on the tongues of these two.

"Snively, why is our guest staring at the floor? It's terribly impolite."

"Yes, sir," some of the sneering tone had gone from Snively's voice in the presence of his master, replaced by a nervous, wheedling timidity.

Knuckles again felt his head being lifted, and was able to look at the cause of his current misery for the first time.

Snively moved out of sight and reached for something. Knuckles felt a pressure around his forehead like that around his upper body and when Snively stepped back into view his head did not slump forward again. Instead he was left staring up at Robotnik, head tipped slightly higher than was entirely comfortable.

Robotnik returned the stare for long moments as though lost in contemplation. Or satisfaction maybe, judging from his expression. Then he clicked his fingers at Snively, who handed him the device from his pocket.

Robotnik took it and glanced briefly at it before looking at Knuckles as though searching his face for some reaction. Then he applied it to the side of Knuckles' jaw.

He held it there for longer than Snively had done, and his thoughtful gaze as the burning spread somehow made the whole thing worse. Completely motionless, Knuckles found his mind running in circles, was almost glad of the enforced silence because he feared he'd have been gabbling and pleading if he'd be able. For some reason he was convinced if wouldn't have been so bad if he'd been able to at least try to get away from it, at least give voice to his distress.

Again he felt his breath choke in his throat, becoming ragged and erratic. Snively fidgeted even more. If anything Robotnik's interest only seemed to sharpen at this development.

Eventually he stepped back and the pain ebbed to a raw sting. Robotnik smiled again.

"Yes," he said thoughtfully. "Very little voluntary muscle control at all. Interesting. I wonder how long the mind would tolerate that, under pressure, without fracturing entirely." He tucked his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels, surveying Knuckles with amused fascination.

The longer he stared, the more Knuckles seethed, anger resurfacing and steadily replacing the not quite avoidable fear.

Eventually Robotnik spoke again.

"I wonder if you've managed to deduce why you are here."

Knuckles hadn't really had time to consider anything other than the immediate prospects but now his mind raced on the subject. With the Emerald already captured what could this creature want from him? The answer came almost too readily. He hadn't been able to use it. He wanted Knuckles to do so for him.

Robotnik seemed entirely unhurried, though Snively fidgeted beside him.

"I suspect you think that this, is some elaborate form of coercion." He waved a hand at the room in general. "Do as you're told or suffer the consequences -- the usual threats and so forth."

Unable to so much as twitch in response, Knuckles was torn between trying to listen to whatever Robotnik was planning, and frantically casting his mind around for any way way out of this situation.

"In fact," the man continued. "There really is no dreadful decision making to be made. It is not a case of choosing to cooperate or not."

He smiled, and that sent another involuntary shudder through Knuckles' body.

"In fact, I am going to give you what you came here for." Robotnik made a curt gesture towards Snively who scuttled away out of sight.

It took another moment's disorientation before Knuckles realised he was moving. However he was bound, it obviously allowed for him to be transported. Unable to turn his head to see where they were going he waited as the room revolved and the door became visible.

Robotnik followed them to it and then stood aside, making a parody of a courteous bow to allow Knuckles and Snively to precede him through it.

Knuckles' breath gave the same choking gasps of shock as he saw what the room contained. The Master Emerald still shrouded in metal and machinery, but still, more or less, intact.

He barely registered Robotnik's voice from behind him.

"I'm going to reunite you with your dear Emerald."

* * *

"Nothing?" Sally asked.

It had been a week. Chuck had reported back regularly and while Robotnik had continued to work on a ship project from before he had captured the Master Emerald, no further progress had apparently been made on using it as an energy source. Or at least none that had been reached Chuck's listening ears.

"So tell me about this ship?" Sally asked instead. Perhaps there was a connection. "How close is it to finished?"

Chuck paused to collect his information. "Maybe a few more weeks. I haven't seen any information come through about propulsion which is why I waited on getting the info back to you. I thought he might be planning to try and use the Chaos energy."

"But there's been nothing?"

Chuck shook his head. "Nothing recorded. Robotnik and Snively spend plenty of time in there with it, but they've taken no more prisoners down there and there's no data logged in the system on what they're doing."

"Hmm." Sally tapped her fingers on the table. "You don't think they can know how we found out about the location last time?"

Sonic's eyes widened at the thought. "They can't know about you, Unc?"

"I doubt it very much." Chuck sounded unworried. "If they thought there was a spy it would be more like Robotnik to plant some false information in there and try to draw me out."

"How do we know this isn't?" Sally asked. "I can't understand why the information would just dry up on such an important experiment."

"Maybe the explosion damaged so much stuff that they're given up?" Sonic said. It wasn't entirely a hopeful thought. It was one that admitted the possibility that he'd been trying not to consider.

That Knuckles had been killed in the shooting, or the explosion, or died as a prisoner seemed all too likely on the evidence, and this silence from the experiments seemed to back up that idea.

Set against that, was the fact that this was the second time in a fortnight that they'd assumed Knuckles dead or captured and they'd already been wrong once.

If the silence was due to failings in the programme then one of those problems _could_ be the fact the Knuckles had somehow escaped. Couldn't it?

"Okay," Sally said. "If that's all we got then it's the same story. We wait."

"I'm sick of waiting," Sonic said, scowling. He'd heard that far too often recently.

* * *

The Emerald energy coursed and leapt and Knuckles would have yelled aloud had he been able. He wasn't and instead his eyes rolled and his breath caught and choked in his throat. It was too much, too fast, and his control was degraded by the interference of machines and wires and the unforgiving hold over his body that they had.

Robotnik watched impassively, as two more of the lights on the panel flickered from amber to green.

"Almost," he said before turning from the panel to Knuckles.

"You really must make more of an effort, Guardian," he chided. "It's really very simple, the power has to flow somewhere and if you continue to stubbornly insist that somewhere is _you_ instead of my equipment than something is going to have to give. It would be decidedly inconvenient if it were yourself."

Knuckles couldn't focus on him, let alone glare at him, but he seethed with fury at the indifferent, almost amused tone.

The Chaos energy surged even more wildly at the emotion and Knuckles seethed at himself as well. He wouldn't regain control through losing his temper that was for certain. He tried to force himself to calm, tried to soothe and steady the energy flows burning and coursing in his blood, tried to bring order. He directed the energy with ease on the Island, as easily as he commanded his own limbs. The problem here was that he had no desire for the energy to flow as Robotnik commanded. To direct it of his will into these vile machines ran counter to everything he knew and felt. But it would not, could not be contained and bound to it, he was the only outlet and it was more than he could absorb and it hurt and he was tired and trapped and it would be so much easier to just let go.

Knuckles was shivering now, violent spasms that threatened to jerk the wires and tubes clear out of his flesh and the temptation to let go altogether, to let Robotnik have exactly what he wanted, all the Chaos energy he could muster and blow that damned machine from here to next week, was so tempting and would be so easy...

But he was the Guardian and if he died here in the ruins of the blast such a release would cause then who would take his place? The Emerald would survive, and there was no telling who would seize the remains and use it to create another filthy regime like this one.

But it was fast approaching the stage where he would lose the strength to decide, the energy had to had an outlet, had to, and so Knuckles fought both it and his own emotions and allowed a fraction, a portion of the energy to flow along those tubes and wires, to flow from the Emerald through him, to the machine.

The third light flickered, then lit and stayed a steady green.

"Sir!" Sniveley shouted.

Robotnik smiled.

"A wise choice. I was starting to wonder." He examined something on the panel while Knuckles struggled to slow his breathing and maintain the connection. It was no longer painful, no longer overwhelming, but he was tired and the energy was unsettled, disturbed, as though the Emerald itself was aware of the misuse to which it was being put.

"I don't suppose you are of a mechanical bent?" Robotnik asked, idly apparently simply for the pleasure of hearing his own voice. "The concept of a throttle is of course essential to the operation of any engine. And that all this is really. A power source, an engine of sorts. It's only unusual in needing a conscious mind to act as that throttle and like any throttle, it's only of any use if the power supplied can be adjusted at will."

He moved a few switches and the last of the lights reverted to amber. Behind Knuckles the Emerald glowed fiercely, throwing his shadow into sharp relief on the clinically white floor and bringing with it another overwhelming, unwanted rush of energy.

* * *

Two days later Chuck hurried into Knothole.

"He's done it," he told them the moment he walked in the door. His voice was more composed than the speed of his arrival, a flesh and blood animal would have been out of breath at least with such haste.

Chuck however continued without a pause. "He's got Knuckles, that's how he's done it. He's... I don't know how he'd done it but he's a part of it I know. I haven't been able to get in to see, this is all overheard, I caught glimpses of monitors, that sort of thing. But somehow he's done it."

Sally and Sonic stared at him, not sure whether even the news that Knuckles had survived was good news or not in this situation.

Sonic turned to Sally, who as so often was the first to recover her composure and start thinking about decisions.

"He's managed to use the Emerald as a power source." It was hardly a question, just a confirmation out loud as she sorted through her thoughts. "To power what exactly? This ship?"

"No," Chuck said. "Not yet. It's all hooked up to some sort of test rig."

"Then we can't waste time," Sally said. "We've got to get in there and either get Knuckles out or destroy the thing for good before he can adapt it to use in a real system."

Sonic stared at her. "Not that I'm reluctant, Sal, you know I'm always up for knocking Robotnik down. But whatever happened to 'it's too dangerous, it'll be too heavily guarded' yadda yadda...?"

Sally made a chopping gesture with her hand to cut him off. "This is _more_ dangerous!"

She learned forward across the table. "Get the others. We need a plan."

Once Bunny, Rotor and Antoine had joined them she recapped briefly then went on, "We have to do something, but this is too big for us to tackle. We're going to need help. We'll have to contact Lupe and the Wolf Pack. Griff - I know he's got some others running raids with him these days for all they say they want to lay low. He'll help. And anyone else out there who owes us a favour or who is still fighting back. We'll need them all."

"You talking 'bout open warfare here Sally-girl?" Bunny asked.

"Once Robotnik has that sort of power under his full control it's going to be open warfare whether we want it or not," Sally said grimly. "I'm talking about a pre-emptive attack to stop it getting that far."

She looked around the table, unspoken was the question 'any objections?'

No one spoke, each thinking through what they could possibly achieve, weighing options.

After a few moments Sally spoke again. "Bunny, I want you to go to Lupe, Dulcy will fly you. Sonic you're off to visit Griff."

"And you?" Sonic asked.

"Me, Nicole and Sir Charles are going to stay here and figure out how in the world we're going to pull this off!"

Sonic met Sally's eyes. She was by nature truthful, but seldom so candid about her misgivings when it came to the raids. Sonic gave her a grin.

"Should have some free time then before we all get back!"

Sally smiled tiredly at this support. "Off you all go then. Remember, we need that help. Anything you have to promise them... You won't hear any argument from me.

So they left, and Sally put her head in her hands briefly before taking a deep breath and pulling out Nicole.

"Here's what we need..."


	7. Chapter 7

Sonic had resorted to the plain truth. Griff and he had already had too much skirting around and avoiding the truth before, there was no space in the mission for lack of trust, and sharp in Sonic's mind was Knuckles' reaction to having things hidden from him. Lies and secrecy was part the reason they were landed in this situation in the first place.

"This Emerald," Griff said, as he turned away to pace the length of the long, equipment filled room which was the hub of Lower Mobius' power and security systems. "It's greater than the power stones?"

Sonic shrugged, "I don't know. It's too powerful for Robotnik to keep I know that And it reacts with the rings somehow."

He paused. "It's powerful all right."

Griff stopped and gazed out over the main square, where people were going about their daily routine, secure in this small untouched refuge.

"And what do we do with it when we get it back?"

Sonic frowned. "If we get it back, and it really is an 'if', and _if,_ we get Knuckles out too, it's his. He knows more about it that anyone. It looks like he's the only one who can control it anyway."

"But he's kept it away from everyone, never helped us... Hidden..."

Sonic thought about it. "Yeah," he said. He wondered if he could convince Griff. He hadn't seen the effects after all.

"Look it's too dangerous to keep. I got hold of it by accident once and it did not go well."

To say the least. Sonic grimaced. "I would have killed Robotnik. I thought I had."

Sonic could almost see the word, 'good' forming on Griff's lips to be spoken and ploughed on.

"I wouldn't have stopped at him!"

Griff stopped short in whatever he'd been about to say and turned to regard Sonic.

After a moment he spoke. "I don't have many fighters."

Sonic smiled, "Quality, not quantity... Or something like that."

* * *

Lupe gestured to a place by the fire and Bunnie sank, somewhat awkwardly to sit cross legged beside her.

"So," Lupe started when Bunnie carried on waiting. "You really think a head on attack is appropriate?"

Bunnie sighed, "Sally-girl thinks it's the only way. We already tried sneaking in, all that did was lose us one more critter, we can't afford any more, and we can't let Robotnik keep..." she hesitated, "...it."

Lupe stared quietly into the flames. "And you think I can lead my pack into a fight we may well not be able to win on the strength of your word and Sally's that 'it' is so dangerous, that attacking is safer than the alternative."

It was not a question.

"I can't do it," Lupe said after a moment longer. "Can you think of any argument that I should? Would you?"

Bunnie bit her lip. "This thing..."

"Is dangerous, too dangerous for everyone to know about. Too desirable, too risky, too..." Lupe stopped. "I believe you, you know, it's not that. Or I believe you think it's true anyway, but..."

Bunnie struggled to come up with something that would sway the argument, and failed. Sally was the smooth talker, the diplomat, not her. She had no clever words nothing. Nothing except the truth. And like Lupe it wasn't that she distrusted her. It was just...

Bunnie made a decision. "D'you ever hear of the Floating Island?" she said suddenly.

Lupe attention sharpened. "It's a story..." this time the statement was a question.

Bunnie shook her head. "No," she said. "It really ain't."

* * *

In the end it was the threat that drove them all. Sally had been reluctant to reveal the source of the power Robotnik had got his hands on other than to say it was huge and dangerous, fearing it was too tempting a prize and there'd be sure to be someone who thought it would be better in their hands than destroyed.

They'd proved impossible to persuade without a full explanation though, so in the end they'd had to be told. She could argue with Sonic and Bunnie's choices.

Knuckles wouldn't like it of course, but if Sally was brutally honest it was only fifty-fifty odds that he was in any condition to hold an opinion by now.

So Sally drew up her plans, and slowly but surely the support trickled in. Messengers ran back and forth since Knothole could not host them all without attracting attention and Sonic was kept busy as the fleetest of the messengers.

Finally, over the next week a plan slowly materialised out of the running around, and discussions and outright arguments. Lupe would lead one attack, against the main bot factory. This, they all agreed was one target Robotnik could not afford to ignore.

Nicole would attempt to obtain computer access and set off as many false alarms all over the city as she could as an extra diversion.

Meanwhile, Griff would take a second band through the tunnels, and attack from the same route as Sonic had taken before. The hope was that Robotnik would assume this was another attempt of the Knothole fighter and would throw his forces into pursuing them, when they retreated through the tunnels.

When that happened, _if_ that happened, Sonic and the Knothole band would make their way into the base and either retrieve Knuckles and the Emerald, or in Sally's rather ominous description, 'deal with things'.

Everyone was on edge. They had never made such an open and direct attack and no one was under any illusion about the risk.

"We're going on your word, Sally," Lupe said, after the latest meeting had broken up. "Your word that the rumours about magic jewels and unlimited power, turned out to be almost true, and truly dangerous."

"I know," Sally said. "I know exactly how much I'm asking, but if you'd seen what it's capable of..."

Lupe nodded slowly. "They'll take your word, they trust you. We all do."

Sally sighed. "I hope they still will after tomorrow."

Dawn was slow in coming the following morning, a dark scum of cloud darkened the horizon, and helped conceal the freedom fighters' approach. Outside the city, Sally confered briefly, once last time with the leaders of the varied groups.

"Good luck," she said. "And thank you."

Lupe and Griff nodded, and slipped away, to fan out with their teams. Sally glanced at Sonic, then looked from face to face around the small group of Knothole fighters who remained.

"Ready?" she asked.

Sonic flashed him usual grin, in spite of her seriousness. "'Course!"

Sally smiled back, grateful for his confidence to buoy her own,

"Let's go."

* * *

Inside, Chuck tapped a few keys and moved on to another terminal. His role did not involve a great deal of computing and it would look suspicious to remain in one place for too long.

A few corridors further on he logged back in. They was no trace of Knuckles in the prisoner manifest, but the room where the Emerald had been kept, was marked as unavailable. Chuck was certain if he was alive, that's where he would be.

He moved on, checking the time. Nicole would be accessing the system any moment if everything was running to plan. He planted the message for her moved to monitor the situation from a more central location.

* * *

Sally crouched at the small external terminal. Sonic and Bunny stood watchfully behind her, Antoine and Rotor crouched in hiding nearby.

"Nicole?" Sally whispered.

"Accessing," came the unflappable voice. "Confirmed. Time delayed alarms set. Also received message."

"A message from Uncle Chuck?" Sonic interrupted.

"Confirmed," Nicole repeated. "Message indicateds plan remains unchanged."

Sally nodded. "So we wait for Lupe."

As it panned out they didn't need to wait long. As Sally re-pocketed Nicole a loud bang rattled the dirty windows and a plume of smoke rose from several streets away.

"That's our cue," Sonic grinned. He gestured at the nearby drain cover, "After you?"

Sally gritted her teeth and proceeded him down the ladder.

They didn't speak as they moved through the darkness, didn't need to. They all knew the plan, they had all worked so often that they needed nothing more.

And the silence let them listen. That was important and they froze as footsteps echoed from the turn ahead.

This was one of the dicey bits. If those footsteps weren't animal, they were in trouble, and if they were then their owners were standing silently wondering the same thing.

Sally met Sonic's eyes who shrugged, then shouted, "Come out come out whoever you are!"

"Sonic?" A voice to go with the steps then, and Griff rounded the corner, smiling in relief. "It started well?" he asked Sally.

She nodded. "The fake alarms should be going off as we speak. We saw Lupe's efforts before we came down here.

The groups groups moved off together for a distance, until they approached where Sonic and Knuckles had first broken in. They stopped some way short, suspecting that the way might be less unguarded this time.

Griff turned again to Sally. "We'll go on then. We'll make it as convincing as we can, then lead them off. We'll be looking to lose them then get home from here. Good luck."

"And to you, "Sally smiled warmly, "We appreciate your help."

Griff gave a short nod of acknowledgement, then beckoned his companions onwards.

Sally and the other crouched, waiting. They needed to be as silent as possible, but alert too, there was always the possibility that some of the bots chasing Griff's team might try for a different route.

Things again happened quickly and they heard the sounds of weapon fire and shouting, and not a small amount of clattering and clanging as bots fell. Lights from a source out of sight illuminated the tunnels where the crouched and the noises abruptly increased in volume, no longer muffled by metal and stone.

They died away only slowly, and Sally was resiting the urge to fidget before she said, "Now" and jumped up.

They all ran to the hole, where scuffing in the dirt below showed that Griff had indeed managed to entice a fair few swatbots into the tunnels.

Sonic leapt through first with the others close behind him. Sally swung round as she emerged trying to take in the whole room at a glance. Sonic was already engaged with three swatbots and two more were approaching, Sally fired at one, before Bunnie leapt past her and yanked the other one around in a twirling smash into the wall.

Sonic flew past in a blur, striking the replaced security cameras and even Antoine managed to get a shot on target to bring down a spyeye that was heading for the door.

The room fell quiet apart from their panting.

"Griff did a good job" Sonic allowed. He pointed at the pinioned Emerald, frowned for a split second and then gasped. "What..."

Sally had been too focussed on their attackers to take in the actual purpose of the attack itself and spun at Sonic's gasp to stare at the Emerald. She'd dimly registered it as they'd burst in, but only to note, it was present, and as Sonic had said was surrounded by a tangle of machinery.

So much machinery in fact that it took the second examination Sonic was now giving it before it was possible to spot that there was something -- some_one_ else in the midst of it.

Knuckles hung suspended there, his back pressed against the Emerald's side, held by a metal band around his chest and as shot through with wires and tubes as the Emerald itself. They wound and twisted around his limbs and bit in like ivy throttling a young tree. As if some horrible mechanical parasite had snared them both.

Bunnie had frozen in horror as she too realised, and Rotor and Ant hesitated before Sally gestured at the two of them to get to work on the rods holding the Emerald.

Sonic had stepped closer, but it was unclear whether Knuckles had any inkling of their presence. He wasn't looking at them, his head held by a thin band so that he was staring over their heads. Except that staring was the wrong word, his eyes rolled alarmingly, seemingly at random, while his throat worked and his breath was noisy in the echoing room. There was a livid burn on his cheek and his hands and feet were bare.

Sally took a deep breath and since Sonic seemed at a loss, stepped closer and pulled out Nicole.

"Nicole," she found herself almost whispering for some reason. "What can you make of this?"

"Scanning."

There was a pause, perhaps a longer pause than usual for Nicole.

"Unknown technology," the little computer said after several more moments. "Parts appear based on the Roboticiser, but there is no indication of actual mechanisation of organic material. Power source is unknown. Bears some similarities to the power stones and rings."

"Knuckles?" Sally asked, more loudly. There was no response. She looked closer and thought she could see what Nicole meant about the Roboticiser technology. A tangle of wires and cables, attached to a long arm was pressed tightly against Knuckles' neck - control of some sort?

She reached up to it. Tugged slightly. Knuckles' breathing quickened and he gasped as though choking. Sally withdrew her hand quickly, but Knuckles showed no other external signs of being in pain. His limbs were limp, relaxed. Apart from his ragged breathing and the strange wandering of his gaze he might have been sleeping for all the physical reaction there was.

"Rotor?" Sally said. "Look here a minute."

Rotor left off struggling with the cutting tools and joined her.

"What do you think?"

Rotor followed the arms and the cables attached to it back to their source in the console nearby.

He scratched his nose. "The roboticiser embeds all that control stuff straight into the brain -- becomes part of it. This looks temporary. We know Robotnik couldn't make Emerald work with robots. He wants control but can't force any physical changes..."

"If we break the connection?"

Rotor shrugged. "I don't know." He looked at Knuckles. "Presumably he'll be back in control. If it hasn't already done damage..."

Sally took a deep breath. "Give me that cutter."

Nervously Rotor handed it over. Sonic opened his mouth but Sally cut him off.

"Watch the door, Sonic."

Sally took the cutting tool eyed the cables for a moment, then reached up and severed them.

The effect was instantaneous. Knuckles immediately let out an almighty scream and started kicking and flailing like a creature possessed. Sally pitched backwards in alarm and was only stopped from falling by Bunnie as Knuckles wrenched his head free from the restraints and twisted in the bonds that held him off the floor.

"Knuckles!" Sally shouted this time unable to get close enough to help without catching a blow from his thrashing feet and fists as he tore at the wires and tubes lacing his arms..

Bunnie was also dodging around trying to help, but in the end it was Sonic, abandoning his watching of the door, who managed to reach and release the last restraint.

Knuckles flopped forward, struggling and crying out, lost to panic for a few more minutes before the struggling eased to a deep shuddering and the screams subsided to deep sobbing breaths. He rolled over, made it to his knees and moved as though to bury his face in his hands before jerking them away as he touched the raw blister there.

"Knuckles?" Sally said for the third time, her voice cautious half afraid of provoking him back into hysterics.

He looked up and his expression flickered through confusion and anger to a muddled sort of distress which looked most unlike him.

"Help me."

Sally frowned. "That's what we're here to do, but the Emerald..." She looked across at Rotor who had returned to the rods, he gave a quick shake of his head. They were undamaged.

"Help me!" Knuckles snarled. "You've done enough to interfere, now _help_!" He got halfway to his feet and Sally caught him as he staggered but made it the rest of the way.

"The Master Emerald." He took a faltering step towards the Emerald, hissed through his teeth and snatched his foot up again. After a moment he put it down again and flinching, set his weight on it to take another step and another, Sally at his side, confused but reluctant to restrain him.

Sonic raised his eyebrows and pointedly looked at an non-existent watch.

"Knuckles," Sally said. "We have to get out of here. We have to leave."

Knuckles didn't even glance at her.

"The Emerald." He was stood before it now, one hand raised as though to caress it.

"We've tried," Sally said, "We can't cut the rods. We can't leave it here, you know that. We have to--" she hesitated, but it was the truth, "--we have to destroy it."

"You can't." Knuckles voice was getting quieter by the moment and curiously absent of emotion after the uproar of moments before. Even the anger seemed to have died.

"We have to."

Knuckle grimaced, then for a moment he seemed to recover himself and looked bitterly amused. "That was a physical statement not an emotional one. You are not capable of destroying it."

He closed his eyes, drew back for a moment.

"But I am."

He flung himself forward, brought his arm round and threw everything into one heavy blow. The Emerald shattered. A wave of energy that felt like it should have floored everyone but somehow didn't, surged through the room. Knuckles fell forward, not even trying to recover his balance and landed on his hands and knees amid a pile of glittering green shards.

There was a moment of stunned silence, as Knuckles fumbled over gathering the shards, ignoring the fact that they cut his shaking fingers.

Sally hauled off her rucksack and emptied the remaining contents onto the floor. Before handing it to him.

"Here," she said,

Knuckles gave her a suspicious glance, but starting filling the bag without answering.

Sally looked up. "Sonic, Rotor, get that explosive set on the door, we may as well delay any pursuit.

Bunnie was already waiting by the hole, and moved to Knuckles' side as he and Sally joined her. They dropped down into the tunnels and were already running when the explosions rocked the buildings above.

It was not a pleasant journey back to Knothole, Sally sent Sonic on ahead, carrying Knuckles who, despite an iron fisted grip on the bag of Emerald shards, looked ready to pass out. The rest of them were shocked and shaken by his condition and now that the immediate threat was past Sally had fallen to wondering whether Lupe and Griff had got their teams away without casualties.

* * *

For his own part, Knuckles barely registered the journey at all. The noise, and movement, the stinging of his injuries, the hedgehog's grasp, everything was part of the same blur. Only the faltering power from the bag of shards clutched to his chest held any meaning or sense.

They were the only reason to stay awake, to remain amid the confusion and pain. They were the reason for it as they were only way out of it.

After an unmeasurable time the movement slowed, and the noises changed. Voices, clearly voices, but distorted and strange as though heard a long way off, or muffled by stone or water. Knuckles shook his head to clear it, fighting for concentration.

The place was unfamiliar, but not entirely new, He had been here before. Not all of the voices were strange either.

The room spun as he was lowered onto his back on something soft. Too low. Too vulnerable. He struggled to haul himself upright.

"OK, OK. Chill." One of the voices resolved itself and Knuckles belatedly tied it to the blue hedgehog now helping him to sit up.

"Sonic?" The confusion was sufficiently thick that he had to check. Robotnik had achieved such frighteningly complete control of his body, it was not beyond possibility that he could be hallucinating as well.

"The one and only," the hedgehog responded, and surely that cocky cheer was unfakeable and didn't the wretched animal even realise what he'd done?

"Were we followed?" Knuckles heard his own voice croak, became aware for the first time how weak it sounded.

Sonic sounded insulted. "No way."

Someone else entered the room. Knuckles eyed her warily.

"Rosie," Sonic sounded relieved, "The others are fine but I came on ahead." He pointed at Knuckles. "He needs help."

Knuckles would normally have contested that as a matter of principle quite aside from the fact he had no desire to be in debt to the people who had landed him in this mess, but suddenly found himself too tired to try.

Rosie, looked him up and down. "What happened?" she asked, seeming rather at a lost for where to start.

Knuckles looked down at his arms wrapped around the bag. Here and there wires trailed from his limbs and the fur was matted in several places where the tubes he'd torn out had drawn blood. His back and foot and cheek all stung furiously but none of the injuries was dramatic enough to warrant such concern.

He just felt tired. Drained, although he shied away from the word, not caring to think too hard on the memory of being simply a conduit for someone else's use of the Chaos energy.

After a moment Rosie seemed to collect herself. "I'll get the first aid kit," she said.

Sonic hovered at the side of the sofa for a moment.

"Do you want anything?" he asked, suddenly. "You need water or something?"

Knuckles hadn't thought about it but his throat was dry. He nodded.

He winced slightly as he drank and Sonic was prompted to ask, "What happened?" He gestured vaguely at the burn on his cheek. "That's not a laser burn."

Since Knuckles was sporting one of those as well the difference was particularly obvious.

Knuckles stared into his water glass before taking another slow sip.

"They wanted to make sure I really couldn't struggle," he said after a moment considering whether to speak or not. "However... motivated... I was."

Sonic's face drew into a frown but he didn't ask any more questions, for which Knuckles was deeply grateful.

By the time Sally and the other arrived, Rosie had seen to Knuckles' injuries, he'd eaten a bit and his only remaining problem was deciding between the conflicting appeals of getting as far from here as he could stagger, and staying put and falling asleep on the spot.

The intermittent unconsciousness of the past few days could hardly be counted as rest and he was exhausted but deeply reluctant to sleep. He looked down at the green light shimmering from the bag of Emerald shards and the sight and the thought of the shattered pieces was like having his own limbs broken. A desperate longing for the security of the Island was a further ache and it was all so much he could hardly think , let alone make a decision.

When he looked up Sally's eyes met his.

"We'll watch them," she assured him.

He mustered a growl. "You think that reassures me! You planned to destroy it!"

Sally looked taken aback. Knuckles stared. How could she possibly be surprised that he was angry at such a betrayal?

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "We – I – thought it was the only way." Her expression hardened, "Anyway you _did _break it!"

"I'm the Guardian!" Knuckles bellowed with all the strength he had left. "I have the right! I have the responsibility that goes with it! You don't! You _lied_ to me!"

He stopped, panting, then spoke again. "I trusted you. You bargained and you forced me trust you – against every instinct, against everything I ever learned as Guardian I trusted you. And then you lied to me."

Sally's mouth moved wordlessly for a moment before she found words.

"I didn't think you'd understand--"

"--the need to sacrifice one thing to save another?" Knuckles cut her off. "Well you were wrong. I know that game very well indeed."

He sighed, too tired to sustain the anger any longer.

"You didn't trust _me_," he said finally. "You made me trust you, but you didn't trust me. Not enough to tell me the truth, not enough to explain.

Moisture welled in Sally's eyes and Sonic, who'd been listening silently, stepped up beside her.

"Stop it," he said. "It wasn't Sally's fault. We all thought it was the only way."

A glance passed between them which Knuckles failed to interpret.

"It was a mistake, all right?" the hedgehog went on. "Just a mistake."

"Just..." Knuckles' lip curled.

"We screwed up," Sonic went on, ignoring Knuckles' reaction. "We screwed up and you got caught because of it. I get it. I do. And you know what? You're not even the first!" Sonic turned away and muttered, "And the odds are pretty damn good you won't be the last."

Sally moved to stand beside the hedgehog in silent support. Knuckles regarded the two of them, one apologetic, one defensive and both utterly sure that they were right. After a moment he dropped his gaze because what more was there to be gained by arguing? They were fighting a battle, as he fought so often on the Island and in battle no one made all of the right decisions all of the time.

"I need to leave," he said eventually, the change of topic as close as he could come to acceptance of the situation.

"You need to rest," Sally said. She smiled weakly. "I I know I've said this before, but please stay just one night."

"It's not safe here." Knuckles warned her, struggling to contain a yawn that shook his whole body. "_Here_ is not safe while the Emerald is here."

"We can manage one night," Sally said firmly. "Robotnik has never found this place so far, is there any reason he's more likely to tonight?"

Knuckles thought about it. Splintered like this, the Chaos energy of the Emerald was ebbing, it would be hard to distinguish, hard to track.

"I don't know," he said, unable to dismiss the possibility entirely.

Sonic tapped his foot. "Hey, it's not like we've never managed before y'know. Anyway, I bet Robotnik's got he hands full dealing with the mess we made today!"

Knuckles didn't like the idea, but in the end his body decided for him and he was unable to prevent himself sliding into sleep where he was, propped upright, clutching the rucksack full of Emerald shards.


	8. Chapter 8

Sally had finally relaxed herself, once she knew Knuckles wasn't about to try and charge off again that very night.

They left him sleeping on the sofa, still with his arms around the bag, which no one even dared suggest separating him from. He'd woken, startled and angry when Sally had made the mistake of trying to move him, but eventually he'd drifted back to sleep.

It was early evening when a knock at the door made Sally jump.

Lupe stood there, and Sally opened her mouth to give her a relieved welcome before noting the seriousness of her expression.

"Griff's dead," she said without preamble.

Sally let out a cry of dismay, and muffled it with her hand. She looked back over her shoulder towards Knuckles who was curled on the sofa with his face turned away, before stepping outside to join Lupe and pulling the door closed behind them.

"What happened?"

"Robotnik had realised something more than isolated attacks was happening. The swatbots turned back from chasing Griff and headed back to the laboratory. Griff went after them to try and delay them."

"It worked," Sally said, in a stifled voice. "They never reached us. We hardly saw a single one."

The expression on Lupe's face was still strange. More than grief or regret.

"There's something else?" Sally asked.

Lupe regarded her.

"In light of what happened, I came to check on your success," she said, "Since it was so important to us all."

Sally frowned up at Lupe. She had been about to send messengers, and could understand the concern but there was something about Lupe's voice. The same strange, guarded 'something' as in her voice. Sally looked away. Perhaps it was just reaction to losing someone. She felt cold, and not quite in touch with it yet herself. They'd lost so many already and she never could quite work out whether it was worse to lose them to death or roboticisation.

"We got Knuckles out," she said eventually. "And Robotnik will not be using the Master Emerald."

"You destroyed it?" Lupe asked, her tone sharpening.

Sally hesitated. Knuckles did not yet know that the cost of his rescue had been telling more people about the Master Emerald's power and, with him asleep besides its remains a room away, did not seem the optimum place to discuss it.

"Yes," she said after a moment. "In fact Knuckles did it himself."

Lupe looked suspicious, perhaps understandably so.

"He's here?"

Sally nodded. "He was injured. Robotnik was..." she grimaced and honest emotion did override her caution then. "It was horrible, Robotnik was trying to use him as some sort of piece of machinery to control it. He's sleeping now."

Lupe nodded slowly. "And the Emerald is destroyed?"

"Smashed," Sally said, which was after all the truth, so why did she feel such a pang in telling it? Perhaps because the way Knuckles clutched at the shards suggested that the destruction wasn't as final as it had looked.

Lupe nodded again, thoughtfully.

"So what will its 'Guardian' do now?" she asked.

"I don't know."

Lupe watched her. "I see." She took a step back. Looked around the village, and up at the clear sky before looking back and her tone abruptly changed. "Sally, we're standing on the doorstep still. If I asked outright to see this person we've risked and lost so much for, what would you say to me?"

Sally sighed. "You said before that people joined me in this because they trusted me. Do you?"

Lupe hesitated. "The Pack are worried. We risked much. They need to know why. And Griff's people will want to know that what he died for was worth it."

"It was," Sally said. "If you'd seen..."

"But I haven't. So I could ask the same question. Do you trust me?"

"You know I do."

Lupe shook her head. "I don't know. I know you used to. But not it seems when it comes to this."

"No one can be trusted with the Emerald."

Lupe and Sally both jumped. Knuckles stepped out from behind the now open door and stood leaning heavily against it. "I told Sally this the first time she came looking for them, and I tell you now that has not changed."

Lupe regarded him thoughtfully, "So 'smashed' isn't the whole story then?"

"It is beyond anyone's use but the Guardian's now."

"And what will you do with it? Guardian?"

Knuckles lifted his chin and met her eyes steadily. "Take it far away from here. It will not be a threat to this place again."

Sally watched Lupe watching Knuckles. She knew Lupe's priorities were different from her own, her pack would always come first, but she was a good judge of character and Knuckles' words had the ring of truth.

After a moment Lupe nodded.

"Very well."

She left as abruptly as she'd come.

Sally turned to Knuckles. "I thought you were sleeping?"

"I was. How many other people did you tell?"

"Only Lupe and Griff. We needed their help." Sally looked down. "And now it's only Lupe that knows."

Sally braced herself to defend her decision but Knuckles said nothing for several seconds. When he did speak, his voice was quiet.

"I am sorry for the death of your comrade. The Master Emerald was not his responsibility to fight for. Nor to die for."

"He thought that stopping Robotnik _was_." Sally looked at Knuckles with a slight frown as she spoke. His words were clearly genuine and there appeared to be absolutely no consideration of the possibility that it was _him_ as well as the Emerald they had tried to save.

"I need to get back to the Island," he said after another moment's silence.

"It landed in the ocean!" Sally reminded him.

"And the Emerald is smashed." Knuckles finished, "But I can restore them both and take them far away from here."

"You really can fix it?" Sally asked. "Then Lupe was right. It is still dangerous!"

Knuckles sighed. "I say it and I say it and no one ever believes me. It is always dangerous." He walked back inside and to Sally's surprise flopped down onto the sofa to rest unprompted, though he continued to speak, his tone weary. "It cannot be used safely and it cannot be destroyed. That's why the Island was raised, it's why a Guardian was set over it. I will take it back there and this time I will keep it there! Tomorrow."

* * *

To Sally's surprise, Knuckles did indeed seem in fair shape the following day. Although he hadn't woken until past noon, the pale clamminess had gone from his face and he looked slightly ragged but alert and calm. More composed in fact than most of the Knothole fighters who had now heard about Griff and were grouped in subdued silence around a mostly uneaten lunch.

"Where is the... Where's Sonic?" Knuckles asked.

"Patrol, Sally said. "We thought we'd better check there wasn't any unusual interest round the forest after yesterday."

Knuckles made a non-committal sound.

Sonic joined them shortly afterwards and did a double take at Knuckles.

"You're looking better!" He shot a glance at the rucksack. "Because of those?"

Knuckles' expression turned guarded. "I need to take them back to the Island."

Sonic, for once, had the diplomacy not to press.

"Yeah, I was thinking about that," he said instead. "And I bet Robotnik is too. He's gonna figure out that's where you'd go, isn't he?"

"Perhaps," Knuckles allowed.

"So," Sonic cocked his head sideways, "What're you going to do about it?"

"Nothing," Knuckles said. "All I need to do is get there. Reforming the Emerald will take a great deal of energy. No mechanical device would survive the discharge."

Sonic tipped his head. "That'd be worth seeing. Need a ride?"

"No," the answer came so fast it was clearly pure reflex and perhaps Knuckles realised it too because he opened his mouth again as soon as he'd said it, a trace of confusion on his face. "I... No."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "It took you how long to get here exactly? _Before_ being frazzled?"

Knuckles scowled. Sally kept her mouth shut, suspecting that any further offer of help at this point was likely to be met with the argument that their 'help' had so far merely managed to get Knuckles captured and Griff killed.

Sonic though, prodded and nagged and followed after Knuckles when he turned his back to leave. In the end Sally wasn't certain whether it was that or the fact that Knuckles was limping by the time he reached the village boundary that finally made him give in and allow Dulcy to land beside him.

"You will stay off the Island," he said, flatly.

Sally nodded. Sonic at least didn't argue and they were quickly airborne.

Dulcy slowed as they reached the coast, flying high and cautious among the clouds, watching for bots below.

The Island looked undisturbed and incongruous, canted sideways in the water. The steam had dissipated. Perhaps enough of the lava had cooled and solidified to contain the rest, and the debris had either floated away or been caught in tangles around the shore.

Knuckles leaned out keenly, staring around.

"Looks quiet," Sally commented.

Knuckles gave a, "Hmm," not looking convinced.

"How are you going to check?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not. It doesn't matter. I'm going anyway." Knuckles said.

He looked down again.

"Can you get me upwind of the volcano, and a little lower?"

"Sure thing," the dragon dipped her neck, banked and glided in the required direction.

"What are you going to do?" Sally asked.

Knuckles reached for one of the safety straps around Dulcy's shoulder and climbed free, to dangle there.

"Knuckles!" Sally was startled.

He glanced fleetingly at her, expression unreadable.

He let go.

"What the--!" Sonic leaned so far out to watch that he came close to following, as Knuckles' spread-eagled figure rapidly shrank away below them.

Dulcy looked back over her shoulder, "Do we follow?"

Sally hesitated. "Keep him in sight a bit longer," she said eventually. "He seems to have an idea of what he's doing but we don't know what bots might be down there."

Dulcy dipped lower as Knuckles turned below them, his rate of acceleration away from them sufficiently slowed that he had to be gliding.

"He's heading for the volcano?" Sonic said, puzzled.

"Straight for it," Sally agreed.

Sonic shook his head. "And you call me reckless."

* * *

Knuckles soared on the warm updraught from the volcano. Half submerged or not, there was activity down there, hot air billowing up and supporting him.

Still a nasty drop to an unpleasant end if he got this wrong, he reminded himself before he got too comfortable with the tempting pleasure of being almost home, and close to restoring the Emerald to where it belonged.

He turned again, wondering why there seemed to be no sign of bots. Was it really possible that Robotnik had not considered that he would come back here?

The volcano's peak was mere hundreds of feet below him now and he circled, needed to judge this exactly right.

A hundred feet.

Fifty.

Twenty.

At the appropriate moment he tucked in his spines and dropped, plummeting through the volcano's vent with enough forward momentum to just snag the internal rock wall with his claws before it widened away from him.

He dangled a moment, gasping, partly with the impact and partly with relief. Then he climbed down carefully to a small gallery, cut into the rock like a balcony around the inner rim. He followed it to a passageway and on deep into the heart of Lava Reef. His feet barely needed instruction from the rest of him to take him back to Hidden Palace and the place of the Emeralds.

He hesitated as he reached the ancient, verdigris-covered doors, listening, watchful. If the apparent absence of bots really wasn't an oversight on Robotnik's part, then this was their last chance to catch up with him.

He waited, but the only sounds were his own breathing, the slow drip of water on rock and the distant grinding of rock under pressure that was the sound of the lava flows.

He place his hand on a particular place on the door, which swung open at his touch.

Inside the chamber was a mess. The blasted hole the bots had entered by had partially collapsed and the rubble covered the chamber and in places filled it to the roof. Several pillars, their bases shattered, had toppled and littered the floor like a forest after a thunderstorm. The altar itself where the Master Emerald normally sat was cracked, but upright.

Knuckles drew out the shards from the rucksack and placed them them upon it.

He took a slow, deep breath and let himself relax. Calm and control were required. He let the damaged surroundings fade from his awareness. None of that mattered. It was just dressing, a reminder of the Emerald's importance, not the thing itself.

He let go of any sense of hurry or urgency. This had to be done right, not fast.

Harder to let go of was the residual anxiety about drawing down the Chaos energy. His last experiences, as an unwilling participant, and before that, the fight to keep the Island afloat as the Master Emerald screamed in protest, were all too vivid. He put them aside, remembered other occasions, the warm enfolding support, the awareness of the Island and everything around it.

He raised his hands, as though to gather the shards into his arms, but never touched them. Instead they floated gently into the air, the light from then spilling around the room as though it was the glow itself which Knuckles was gathering together. They stirred and moved towards each other, slowly drawing back together. A soft ringing sound filled the room--

--and then was broken by a shattering racket as the rest of the half-fallen wall caved in and a squad of swatbots burst from the concealed place behind it. Knuckles spun round to face them and the shards clattered back to the altar, the light fading.

The bots fired, but Knuckles was already moving, driven now by absolute fury. The first bot he met was dispatched in seconds, but he barely missed the blast from the second and he didn't dare move away from the precious shards to deal with the third. After a glancing blow which knocked it across the room, Knuckles backed up circling the altar, dodging the blasts but effectively at an impasse.

If he attacked one, the others would take the shards while he was dealing with it, but he couldn't dodge forever and robots didn't tire as he would.

He raised his fists again, and prepared to do what he'd half expected to at the start of these long, long weeks -- go down fighting.

He drew on what power remained, and flung himself at the nearest of the swatbots. As expected, the minute he left the altar, two more closed on it, reaching for the shards.

They never got there. Instead there was a second blast from the rubble pile and an icy shower of splintered stones scattered over the bots and Knuckles alike as Dulcy blasted her way into the cavern, Sonic and Sally, leaping from her shoulders and into the attack.

Knuckles was so startled he almost got floored by the very next shot, but some instinct flung him to the floor before conscious thought had intervened.

He glanced again at the altar. The bots who had been reaching for it were fully engaged by Sonic and Sally, and Dulcy was turning to defend the hole through which Knuckles could see dark shapes of ships approaching.

Robotnik had clearly been biding his time. Knuckles shot a glance at Sonic, now rocketing around the room. Had they been too? Had they come to stop him? Or – another horrible thought crossed his mind – had they thought he would have reformed it by now and come to take it themselves? While the Island was vulnerable, while he would be fighting on two fronts?

"No!" He scrambled back to his feet dashed his hand against the altar, scattering the shards across the room. "You will not have it! No one will ever have it!"

He was almost sobbing with anger, driven to the end of his endurance in a way that not even Robotnik's machines had managed. One tiny, final act of trust, 'take me home' and he was betrayed again. Even now the hedgehog was gathering up the fallen pieces of the Master Emerald, weaving in and one of the bots and the attacks of the others.

There was a glare of laser fire and the entire altar erupted in front of Knuckles sending him tumbling backwards. He twisted in the air and landed more or less upright. His foot slipped and flailed against thin air for a split second and then he was falling head over heels down the steps to the base of the shrine.

He woke to movement and pain, someone dragging him across the rumble-strewn floor in the darkness. Something hurt inside and it was hard to breathe. Ribs? A sharper pain radiated from his right leg and reaching down he felt the fur matted with blood.

The movement stopped. Knuckles lay on his back, panting.

"Knuckles?" Sally's voice and his fears were confirmed. "Just lie still a minute. Don't try to stand, your leg's cut up pretty badly."

Knuckles found his head too muddled to answer but there was pressure against his leg and new pain and he must have made some sound because Sally spoke again.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts but I've got to stop the bleeding."

"Why?" Knuckles croaked. The only reason they would need him alive was if they wanted the Emerald whole and if they wanted the Emerald then they must not have it.

A greenish light diluted the darkness along with a sardonic voice that could only belong to the hedgehog.

"And the prize for stupidest question goes to..."

"Sonic, that's not helping." Sally sat back from doing whatever it was to his leg and perched on her heels, her face hidden in the greenish shadows.

"But honestly!" And now there was a new anger in the hedgehog's voice. "Listen to him! We risk everyone's life fighting our way into Robotropolis to get him out, lose Griff, then risk our backsides again up here and I bet he still thinks we want to rob him!"

Knuckles blinked in confusion at the hedgehog who was holding the bag of Emerald shards open on his lap.

Sally leaned forward and looked at him.

"Do you?" she asked.

"I..." Knuckles struggled to think clearly. "I... don't know. Where are we?"

Sally shrugged slightly. "I'm not sure. You fell down the stairs. All the way to the bottom, we thought you'd broken your neck. The swatbots lost interest in us and went after you so we dealt with them. There was a tunnel so we piled in here, but there's more of them out there."

Knuckles lifted his head and looked around.

"We're underneath the shrine. An emergency refuge -- escape tunnels."

Sally smiled weakly. "Your people had good forward planning."

"Can we get back to the problem of the bots?" Sonic demanded.

"He's got a point, sugar," Bunnie added. "Nice enclosed space, we can probably hold them off a good while here but not forever."

Sally leaned closer. "You said if you reformed the Emerald the energy wave would destroy all bots on the Island, right?"

Knuckles struggled awkwardly to sit up. Failed. Sally was still talking.

"...so that's what you need to do."

Knuckles shook his head. "I can't."

"You need to be at the altar? I'm sure we can clear you a way. Dulcy certainly cleared a swathe of them coming in."

"It's not that." Knuckles felt a pang from more than his injuries at his choice, but it really was no choice. Or it was the one he should have made from the beginning.

"I won't."

"What?" It was something of a chorus and the obvious shock on all their faces was enough to make him question the decision before deciding again it was already made.

"Why?" Just Sally this time.

Knuckles hitched himself up a little way, enough to flop sideways and lean, half sitting, half sprawled against the rough wall, ignoring the stabbing from his ribs and feeling a renewed trickle of blood down his leg.

"Look at me! I can't defend it like this! You said it yourself – you don't even think I can stand. I can't restore it if I can't guarantee its safety."

"We--" Sally started but Knuckles cut her off.

"Don't ask me to trust you. Please don't."


	9. Chapter 9

All four of the Knothole fighters stared at Knuckles.

"They're going to break in here and kill us all if you don't stop them!" Sally grabbed his shoulders and dragged him halfway to his feet before he shook her off and took one step away before stumbling against the wall and sliding back down.

He brushed ineffectually at the dirt now caking his injuries before looking back at her. He pointed.

"Emergency tunnels – they lead to the outside. You can leave."

Sonic snorted. "And you think we're going to outrun them with you on that leg?"

Sally shook her head, she had heard, or understood his meaning, more clearly than the hedgehog.

"I will not be running anywhere," Knuckles said.

"You're just going to sit here and let them kill you?" Sally snapped. The other all looked at her startled.

"He doesn't mean that..." Bunnie said.

Knuckles found that now it came to it he was perfectly calm. The doubts and decision making were done with. It was simple.

"They would have killed me in the shrine if you hadn't come. It doesn't matter. I'm the last. There are no more Guardians. Once I'm dead there will be no way to restore the Emerald. The shards will fade and its power will go out of the world."

He let his head fall forward, no longer having the energy to face their confused, demanding stares.

"And maybe you were right, maybe that's what ought to happen. You'd be safe from it. Everyone would."

"No!" Sally said, dropping to her knees and shaking him painfully. "No. I was wrong. Wrong! And Griff is dead because of it and I can't let you die because of it too. I can't let you!"

"You can't stop me," Knuckles corrected, ignoring both her tears and another pang that had nothing to do with his injuries. "Even if the swatbots don't get here first, how much blood have I lost from that leg? How much am I still losing? How long have I got?"

"Don't do this." Sonic knelt beside Sally and put his arm around her, though his gaze was fixed on Knuckles. "You don't have to do this."

He pushed the bag of shards into Knuckles' loose grasp.

"I saw what that thing could do. It could save you -- heal you."

Knuckles shook his head as he looked down at the shards. He could feel the cold from the wall seeping into his back, spreading through his limbs.

"It would keep me alive, that's not the same thing."

A crash from further down the tunnel made everyone's heads snap round.

"They're into the tunnel. You should leave." Knuckles stared down the dark passageway.

Sally looked towards the source of the noise, then back at Knuckles.

"No," she said suddenly.

"What?" Knuckles looked back at her, baffled.

Sonic shot a quick look at Sally, then shook his head, equally abruptly. "No," he echoed.

"No." Bunnie stepped alongside Sonic, hands planted on her hips.

"Nope," put in Dulcy, finally.

Knuckles glared at them, angry and confused in equal measure.

"You'll be killed if you stay."

"I don't think so," Sally said. "You know why? Because I trust you."

Knuckles stared. It was hard to think. He was almost too hurt and tired to process this new development.

Sally spoke again, crouching down and leaning close. "I trust you and I don't think you'll let us stand and be killed while you can prevent it."

She lowered her voice sadly.

"And if you really do distrust us so much that you'd rather we died along with you, then I've gone so very far wrong that I'm not sure I deserve to walk away."

Knuckles looked from face to face and down again at the shards in his lap. He had to choose and choose now. Swatbots were pouring up the tunnel. One took aim at him, but Sonic spotted it and deflected the shot by the simple means of knocking the thing's arm off.

And then the others were fighting too. Standing between him and the swatbots and he recognised the expression on their faces. Knew he had worn it himself already this day. He knew now that there was only one way this could end.

Knuckles closed his eyes, tuned out the noise, the blasts, didn't flinch as laser fire whistled past him and struck the rock wall near his shoulder.

Trust came harder than achieving the calm state of mind he knew he needed. If this was his choice then he was utterly reliant on the Knothole fighters to keep off the bots while he made it, and that was so completely new that it took hard work to put out of mind.

He managed it with an effort, breathed slow, listening to the soft chiming of the Emerald shards as he raised his hands and they once again rose and glowed softly.

By now the battle raging beyond the pool of light spilling from the shards was no distraction. The light flowed like smoke, or water, or something thicker, more malleable and Knuckles shaped it, moulded it until a glowing image of the Master Emerald hung there, perfect and complete and the shards came together in that image and steadied.

It took only the smallest effort of will, in this state of concentration to hold them, to make them one again, and instead of taking energy the shard reformed and gave it back, an out-rush of green energy that washed across the room.

Bots inside and out fell instantly to the ground, the living Mobians gasped as the wave passed over them.

Knuckles didn't need to look round to know that there was no more threat. He stared instead at the perfect, flawless Emerald as it dropped gently to the ground.

No one broke the silence until Knuckles looked away from it, his breathing suddenly laboured and weary and his head swimming. He looked around at the tumbled rocks and the sharp angle of the floor, finding it slowly slipping out of focus. There was a sensation of movement, and it took such an effort of concentration to recognise that it was the Island starting right itself, and not just his wavering grip on consciousness.

He blinked and lowered the hand he'd been reaching out to the Emerald to steady himself against the wall. Sudden fear added to the shaking of his breath as he felt unconsciousness approaching. Instinct railed against it, yammering at his nerves that there were too many people here, that the Emerald wasn't safe, that he could not—must not—rest.

The Emerald's glow pulsed softly in time with each gasping, ragged breath. His fingers scrambled at the dirt of the tunnel floor, unthinkingly seeking for something to hold on to. Something solid to anchor himself to wakefulness.

"Knuckles." Sally's voice was firm. "It's okay. We're here."

Knuckles groaned, unable to help himself – didn't they realise that was exactly the problem?

"We're not going anywhere. We'll keep it safe."

And he wanted to believe that, he really did and he'd gambled on it. _Again_, and if he was wrong and if Sally's words were another lie then it was already much too late.

His eyes were closing now against his will, though he fought for every last glimpse. His last thoughts as the colour and light faded around him was a wordless prayer that this time he'd chosen correctly.

* * *

It was light when Knuckles next woke and that confused him all over again. He pushed himself upright, relieved to find that his limbs responded to his commands more promptly now. The light was sunshine, and he was laying on one of his own cots in a shallow cave, the Master Emerald at his side glowing only dimly in the bright light. He could hear water running nearby which reminded him how thirsty he was.

He stiffened at the sound of footsteps and was halfway to standing before he recognised the approaching silhouette as Sally.

"How did I get here?" he asked by way of greeting. "How did you find it? How long was I unconscious?"

She smiled. "In that order – we carried you, Sonic found it, and almost two days." The smile faded. "We didn't want to snoop, but that tunnel was cold and filthy and not the best place to be trying to treat you."

Knuckles gave a tiny shrug, the relief bubbling up too strong to be dampened.

"This place isn't important."

He sat on the edge of the cot. He was stiff and sore, but the danger was clearly well past. Some quality in the air told him they were high, high up and the energy flows of the Emerald were subdued, but stable. Clearly it had expended some power in keeping him alive long enough to at least start to heal.

He faced Sally.

"You stayed."

"And you're still surprised." Sally regarded him sadly.

"I..." He started speaking before he was sure what he was going to say. Stopped because it was true and he shouldn't feel guilty about it but he did.

"You don't... I can't..." He stopped again. Sighed.

"Yes," he said eventually. "I was surprised."

"It's okay." Sally touched his shoulder lightly, quickly, withdrawing her hand before he had time to react. "We'll put it down to 'Guardian stuff' shall we?"

Knuckles recognised the attempt at humour but Sally didn't know how close she was.

"In a way," he said. Abruptly he shook his head and stood, testing his balance and relived to find his head still clear. There were practical matters to deal with.

"I need to move the Island," he said. "I need to take it a safe distance from Knothole. Somewhere Robotnik... somewhere no one... will find it again."

He saw regret at that in Sally's eyes, knew she must still be thinking of how useful the power of the Emerald would be in their fight. A part of him wanted to relieve that disappointment -- he did owe them a certain amount of gratitude in spite of everything and a rather larger part would have liked the opportunity to indulge in revenge upon the vile Robotnik.

A Guardian's duties allowed for neither obligations of debt or personal vendettas however.

"You have good people, Sally," he said slowly, trying to find the right words to ease her disappointment in him. "Good friends. Good fighters. You will win your battles, in time."

Sally looked at him for a long time, but his experience with people was insufficient to interpret her gaze.

"We'll go on trying," she said, after a silence.

Knuckles nodded. "That's all any of us ever do."

Knuckles walked carefully, to the entrance of the cave. He leant on the hedgehog's shoulder when it was offered and pointed towards the edge of the Island. "I'll show you something before you leave."

Outside they could see the coastline changing as they moved swiftly and surely and so smoothly there was no difficulty in keeping their balance as they helped Knuckles to the very edge.

The Island slowed and drifted inland.

Small clouds passed below them but the air felt no colder, another benefit of the Emerald's power.

Knuckles pointed down.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked.

The three Knotholers looked down. A dark green swathe spread out below them.

At its north-west edge there was a smear of grey and tan. Light glinted from the dull grey, picking out highlights here and here.

Sally pointed. "Is that Robotropolis?"

Knuckles nodded.

Dulcy whistled through her teeth. "It looks so small from here..."

"Where's Knothole?" Sonic asked.

Sally pointed at the green, which spread across most of the visible landscape from this angle.

"In there," she said. "That's the Great Forest. I've seen maps but..."

"It lives up to its name, huh?" Sonic said.

Sally turned back to Knuckles and smiled. "Thank you."

"It's important to know what you're fighting for," he said. That was the best he could offer, the best he had. Perhaps it went some way towards repayment.

"Yes," Sally agreed. "We'll have to get back there soon." She faced Knuckles. "But not until you're back on that leg _properly _and working on a full set of ribs I think."

Knuckles gave her a blank look.

"You want to stay longer?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Again with the stupid questions."

Bunnie smiled. "Five of us should be enough to defend that Emerald, even with a hop-along Guardian, d'ya think?"

Dulcy looked at the ruin of the volcano slopes. "Looks like you'll need some housework help if nothing else."

Sally looked back at Knuckles.

"What do you say? Trust us?"

Knuckles closed his eyes again in thought. For a moment he turned his attention to the power flows through the Island. He'd almost forgotten how effortless their power could be could be when the Emerald was untroubled and whole. He felt no danger here, no threat.

And yet...

"If someone told you to put your hand into the fire. That _this_ fire wasn't hot, that it would do you no harm. However much you wanted to believe them – could you?" Knuckles' voice was a murmur, speaking more to himself than any of the confused creatures around him.

"And even if you believed them, how hard would it be to do it? Would you put your hand in the flame?"

He looked again at each of them in turn. Returning to Sally.

And reached into the fire.

"Yes."

--END--


End file.
